COVID-19 Alert - August 27

By the Numbers:

• Individuals Tested:  2,109,950

• 88 counties with at least one case

• Ages range from less than one year old to 109 years of age, with a median age of 42

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

• Total Cases: 118,828, (13,150 of which are health care workers)

• Case Increase in Last 24-Hour Period: 1,244

• 21 Day Reported Case Average: 1,017

• Total Deaths:  4,076

• Deaths Reported in Last 24-Hour Period: 32

• 21 Day Reported Death Average: 22

• Total Hospitalizations: 13,150 (2,929 of which are in the intensive care unit)

• Hospitalization Increase in last 24-Hour Period: 107

• 21 Day Reported Hospitalizations Average: 85

School Update:

• Governor DeWine announced that the Ohio Department of Health will be issuing an order that requires K-12 schools to establish a mechanism for parents and guardians to report confirmed cases of COVID-19 among their children.

• Schools should notify parents/guardians in writing about each case and include as much information as possible without disclosing protected health information. Schools should also make non-identifying information about positive COVID-19 cases publicly available.

• The forthcoming order will also direct all K-12 schools to report confirmed cases to their local health department, which will then report new cases and cumulative case data for students and teachers to the Ohio Department of Health. This aggregate data will be published at coronavirus.ohio.gov each Wednesday.  

Sports Order Changes:

• Lt. Governor Husted announced that the current sports order has been modified to clarify that participants shall not compete in more than one contest or game in any calendar day, as compared to the 24-hour period outlined in the original order. The goal of this adjustment in language is to assist organizers and teams when scheduling games or contests.

Approval of Lost Wages Supplemental Payment Assistance:

• The state received confirmation that FEMA approved Ohio’s application for a federal Lost Wages Supplemental Payment Assistance grant. Ohio will receive $717 M to provide additional assistance to eligible individuals.

Duplicate Payments:

• The Ohio Office of Budget and Management (OBM) and InnovateOhio have identified an additional 38 duplicate payments, totaling $93,978 in savings, using the InnovateOhio Duplicate Payment Tool.

•  In total, $1.1 million in savings have been identified since this project launched. Today’s update brings the total number of confirmed duplicate payments to 145 since January 2019, across 29 different agencies, boards, and commissions.

Testing Paused at Assisted Living:

•  Governor DeWine announced that Ohio is pausing its work to test residents and staff at assisted living facilities through saliva testing instead of nasal swabs due to inconsistent test results. The Ohio Department of Health will investigate the issue through controlled validation testing to determine if the irregularities can be attributed to the test kits themselves, the labs, or the specimen collection process.