COVID-19 Alert - April 24, 2020

By the Numbers:

• 107,109 individuals tested

• 15,169 total cases, 2,455 of which are health care workers

• 690 deaths

• 3,053 hospitalizations, 920 of which are in the intensive care unit

• 87 counties with at least one case

• Ages range from less than one year old to 106 years of age, with a median age range of 51

• State of Ohio COVID-19 dashboard: https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/dashboards/overview

 
Temporary Extension of Foster Care:

• Over the next three (3) months, more than 200 individuals will turn 18 and age out of the traditional foster care system.

• Governor DeWine announced that the state will cover the cost for individuals aging out of traditional foster care to remain in foster care until the pandemic ends. The Governor does not want a child leaving a foster care home without a safe place to live.   

• The extended funding is also available for individuals enrolled in the BRIDGES program, which provides funds for housing and case management to eligible young adults who emancipate out of custody between the ages of 18 and 20 years old. 

844 Inmates Released:

• 336 inmates were released from Ohio’s prisons between April 14th and 21st, bringing the total number of released inmates over the last five (5) weeks to 844 inmates.

State’s Testing Capacity to Increase:

• An increase to the state’s testing capacity is a critical component to re-opening the economy, however there has been a shortage of testing in Ohio from a lack of reagent and testing swabs. The Governor announced two important testing advancements today including:

• Reagent:

  • The Testing Strike Force, led by former Governors Celeste and Taft, had a major breakthrough with an agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific that will greatly expand Ohio’s testing capacity.

• Swabs: 

  • Through the collaborative efforts of the Ohio Manufacturing Alliance to Fight COVID-19, ROE Dental Laboratory in Cleveland will manufacture up to one million swabs for testing in Ohio. They are bringing nearly 100 employees back to work, around the clock, to produce the swabs (while maintaining social distancing and maintaining safe workplace measures).

• Governor DeWine projects that beginning this coming Wednesday, our testing capability will be at least 7,200 tests per day, and that number will go to 15,000 per day by May 6th; 18,800 by May 13th; and 22,000 by May 27th. Note: Ohio averaged 3,728 tests per day in recent days.

• Ohio’s increase in testing capacity will allow us to better respond to hot spots, increase testing in congregate living settings, preserve the ability of grocery and pharmacies to continue serving the public while not spreading the disease, and stand up a robust contact exposure tracing system.

Contact Tracing with ODH Medical Director:

• Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Medical Director, Dr. Mark Hurst, provided an overview of the process of contact tracing, which includes:

  • Upon showing symptoms, an individual should contact their health provider and undergo COVID-19 testing.

  • If he or she tests positive, the patient would begin isolation, quarantining for 14 days. The patient’s health provider would work with the patient to identify everyone the patient came in close contact with, within a timeframe of up to 48 hours, before showing symptoms.

  • All individuals who have been in close contact with the patient during the contagious period would be contacted by the community health worker. All identified individuals would be encouraged to begin a 14-day isolation period.

  • If at any point during this 14-day period an identified individual begins to display coronavirus symptoms, the process would commence for them – including a COVID-19 test and identification of contacted individuals.

• Dr. Hurts anticipates 1,750 contact tracers need to be hired, stating that this will largely be a function of local health departments. He also emphasized that public health officials have utilized this process for many years for other ailments.

Return Your Absentee Ballot:

• Lt. Gov. Jon Husted reminded us that absentee ballots for the primary election must be postmarked by Monday, April 27. Ballots not submitted by mail can be returned to drop boxes at the county boards of elections by 7:30 PM on Tuesday, April 28. Drop boxes are accessible to voters without coming into contact with another person.

• 1.7 million Ohioans have requested ballots, though 700,000 ballots have not yet been returned.