星空无限传媒

Some Ohio National Guard troops got a greeting from their commander-in-chief as they set out on their mission to help Ohio鈥檚 hospitals overwhelmed by soaring COVID patient numbers and staffing shortages.

Butbecause they're unvaccinated.

DeWine personally offered well wishes to guard members at the Defense Supply Center in Columbus, sending them off with a handshake and a homemade buckeye from his wife Fran. They're headed to around 35 hospitals across the state.

But DeWine said he鈥檚 frustrated that almost half of Ohio Army National Guard personnel can鈥檛 be deployed on this mission because they haven鈥檛 gotten COVID shots.

鈥淚n some of our testing places, 40% to 45% of the people are testing positive. So this is a high-risk operation. You need to be protected. The best way for you to be protected is to get the vaccination," DeWine said. "So, look, we're not happy with where we are. We鈥檙e going to continue to push that with our troops."

Adjutant General Major General John Harris Jr. said some 44% of Ohio Army National Guard members don鈥檛 have their COVID vaccinations, and can鈥檛 be sent to hospitals till they do.

鈥淚 would never put a soldier or airman in harm's way without the best protection we could put on them body armor, helmets, and this medical readiness is the exact same thing," Harris said of mandating COVID vaccines. "We're putting folks into harm's way.鈥�

So he鈥檚 moved up the deadline from the June 30 date set by the Pentagon to March 31.

鈥淚 certainly don't want to vilify the people who aren't taking the vaccine," Harris said. "I am disappointed that there's so much conflicting information that makes a very difficult decision.鈥�

Harris said the move of that deadline has boosted the vaccination rate from 53% to 56% in just the last week. But that鈥檚 still below the state鈥檚 vaccination rate of around 59%. And it's also below the National Guard鈥檚 national average of just over 61%.

Copyright 2022 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit .