Lakewood PD Not Yet Receiving COVID-19 Vaccine Due To State Plan

LAKEWOOD, OH — Lakewood's firefighters and EMS personnel began receiving COVID-19 vaccines last week, the city announced.

However, Lakewood's other first responders — the police — are not currently scheduled to receive the vaccine soon. Police Chief Kevin Kaucheck noted that police officers were initially part of the state's 1B category (meaning they would receive vaccines during the second distribution wave). However, police were subsequently removed from 1B.

"At this time neither the State nor the County are offering any guidance (or expected date) when Police will receive vaccinations," Kaucheck told Patch in an email. He added that the state appears to have no definite plans to vaccinate police in the near future.

Mayor Meghan George said she would like to see all of Lakewood's first responders vaccinated as soon as possible.

“Police were initially included in Phase 1B of the State of Ohio's Vaccination Plan. Since those initial phases were released, the State has removed police from Phase 1B and will likely include them in Phase 1C of their Plan. I was disappointed to see our first responders removed from this earlier phase of the vaccination process. Anyone in Lakewood will tell you that our Police Department has been on the front lines of this pandemic from the beginning. I am advocating to make vaccines available to our police officers and residents as quickly as possible," she said in a statement emailed to Patch.

The state's COVID-19 vaccination dashboard says that 1.71 percent of Ohio's population, nearly 200,000 people, have started the vaccination process. On Dec. 30, there was a COVID-19 vaccine distribution event in Westlake.

The Westlake Fire Department and the Cuyahoga County Board of Health worked together to distribute the Moderna vaccine to EMS and first responder personnel from across the county's western suburbs, including Lakewood. Approximately 700 people began their vaccination process during the event.