About 60 percent of Ohio nursing home workers have so far opted against taking the COVID-19 vaccine as deaths linked to coronavirus have soared in the state.

“We aren’t going to make them but we wish they had a higher compliance,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said of the nursing home staff at a Wednesday press briefing, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

“Everyone makes their own choice about this but we want to make it clear that opportunity may not come back for a while,” the governor said.

The high number of nursing home workers electing not to take the vaccine comes as the state experienced its deadliest month of the pandemic.

Ohio reported 2,426 deaths from COVID-19 in December, the report said. Overall, since the onset of the pandemic, over 8,800 people in the state have died from the illness.