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OHIO HOSPITALS TAKE OUT NEWSPAPER AD BEGGING PEOPLE TO GET VACCINATED: "WE NEED YOU TO CARE AS MUCH AS WE DO"
By Jessica Lipscomb
Today at 4:05 a.m. EST

Facing an increase in coronavirus cases as the omicron variant rapidly spreads through Ohio, leaders of six health-care facilities in the Cleveland area took out a full-page ad in the state’s largest newspaper pleading with residents to get vaccinated.

One word anchors the message: “Help.”

“We now have more COVID-19 patients in our hospitals than ever before,” the ad in Sunday’s issue of the Plain Dealer says. “And the overwhelming majority are unvaccinated. This is preventable.”

It ends with a desperate plea for the attention of a pandemic-fatigued public: “We need you to care as much as we do.”

In Ohio, less than 55 percent of residents are fully vaccinated, and about 36 percent are fully vaccinated with a booster shot. The state has seen a 30 percent increase in coronavirus cases in the past week, according to The Washington Post’s tracker. Deaths are up 16 percent.

Even as cases rise, Ohio is facing a shortage of health workers to provide care. Gov. Mike DeWine (R) announced Friday that he would mobilize over 1,000 members of the Ohio National Guard across the state to help provide relief. Those missions start Monday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/12/20/cleveland-hospitals-newspaper-ad-covid-cases/