COVID-19 Alert - October 13

By the Numbers:

• Individuals Tested:  3,688,793

• 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 40

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

• Total Cases: 171,626 (17,934 of which are health care workers)

• Case Increase in Last 24-Hour Period: 1,447

• 21 Day Reported Case Average: 1,227

• Total Deaths:  5.017

• Deaths Reported in Last 24-Hour Period: 12

• 21 Day Reported Death Average: 18

• Total Hospitalizations: 16,565 (3,447 of which are in the intensive care unit)

• Hospitalization Increase in last 24-Hour Period: 123

• 21 Day Reported Hospitalizations Average: 79

Case Increase Continues:

• Governor DeWine cautioned that the continuing increase in COVID-19 cases indicates that significant numbers of infections are likely this winter unless citizens take steps to mitigate and control the spread of the virus. 

• In the last seven days, Ohio COVID-19 cases have averaged 1,475 cases per day by report date as compared to an average of approximately 1,000 cases per day only two weeks ago. Ohio's current positivity rate is 4.1 percent as compared to 2.7 percent on September 23 and 24. A total of 51 counties are considered high incidence and/or Alert Level 3 on Ohio's Public Health Advisory System. 

• A new public service announcement featuring former Ohio State coaches Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer encourages everyone to stay in the game and to stick to the game plan. 

Childhood Vaccines:

• In Ohio and across the country, there has been a decrease in vaccinations administered to protect against diseases like measles, chickenpox, whooping cough, and polio, and today Governor DeWine today encouraged parents not to delay their children's well-visit vaccinations.

• In the coming days, the Ohio Department of Medicaid will launch several initiatives to encourage childhood immunizations among its members.  These efforts will be aimed at increasing safe, convenient access to vaccinations by providing mobile vaccination clinics and reducing administrative barriers for providers.

NEW Lab Capacity Dashboard:

• Governor DeWine announced the creation of a new Lab Capacity Dashboard to help pharmacists, nursing homes, colleges and universities, employers, and others administering COVID-19 tests find a lab to run their samples. This new resource will help connect groups that are testing with available labs in order to ease turnaround times and inform Ohioans of their COVID-19 status.

• The new dashboard provides self-reported information about labs that can run tests, including hours of operation, types of tests they accept, estimated turn-around time, and locations. Labs with available capacity can sign up on the website to be included in this dashboard.

Binax-Now Testing Plan:

• Governor DeWine discussed plans for Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 antigen screening tests that the federal government is providing to Ohio.

• This week, Ohio is deploying thousands of these screening tests to colleges and universities to help them implement proactive screening plans. Next week, Ohio will begin sending tens of thousands of screening tests to nursing homes for both routine and outbreak testing requirements. 

• Governor DeWine emphasized that lab-based PCR tests are still considered the “gold standard” test that provides the most accurate results, and antigen tests can have false positives and false negatives.

• In addition, he cautioned that testing should not be considered a substitute for precautions such as wearing masks, social distancing, and avoiding large gatherings.