05/26/2020

2020-05-26 OH Gov. DeWine COVID-19 Update

Updated daily at 2 p.m. - https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/ 

Please join us on Friday, June 5 from 1:00 pm -1:30 pm ET for a discussion with Candace McGraw, Chief Executive Officer of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG). Topics include plans CVG is implementing to enhance personal safety for passengers, the strength of the airport’s cargo business, the airport’s long-term focus on ensuring CVG is a cost-competitive place to do business and the state of the air travel industry.  If you’d like to participate, please RSVP here.

New orders/actions/measures

• The Governor announced a new testing regime for congregate care facilities – see more below.
• There will be no press conference tomorrow.

Governor DeWine announced that beginning this week, there is a new effort involving the Ohio National Guard and state and local health departments to increase testing in congregate care facilities.  All nursing homes, approximately 950 across the state, will eventually be tested, but testing will start in nursing homes that already have a history with coronavirus.  Teams of 10 will work with the facility to first assess residents and then the National Guard will follow to do testing.  All staff will be tested and residents will be tested based on a clinical assessment – resulting in some or all residents being tested based on the assessment.  In addition to nursing homes, all residents and staff of the state’s 8 development disabilities facilities will be tested this week.  He stressed that testing is a snapshot of time, but it will provide a baseline of knowledge for health officials to work from. 

Jeff and Tina, two physicians from SW Ohio that are recovering from COVID-19, joined the press conference.  Jeff, who is still on oxygen, was diagnosed on March 20 and was admitted to the hospital on March 27.  Jeff was sent straight to the ICU for four days.  In addition to requiring intubation, he suffered from a cytokine storm, a severe immune reaction in which the body releases too many cytokines into the blood too quickly, which impacted most of his internal organs.  He ultimately spent a month in the hospital.  Jeff noted that he lost 50 pounds while in the hospital and talked about his muscle loss and ongoing lung difficulties.  He said his continuing to slowly improve.  Tina spoke about the problems of being sick with COVID-19 while also trying to track and support Jeff’s care during his stay in the hospital. 

Dr. Acton provided today’s numbers and the Lt. Governor was not present for today’s press conference. 

Note: For an archive of all COVID-19 related First Alerts from Calfee, which are separate from these emails and focused on specific business topics, please visit the Calfee COVID-19 Resource Center: https://www.calfee.com/covid-19-resource-center

Other items of note

• Ohio lost 823,700 jobs in April as the unemployment rate rose 11 percentage points from the previous month.  The number of unemployed workers in the state was 957,000, or 16.8%, compared with 5.8% in March and 4.1% in April 2019, according to the latest Department of Job and Family Services (JFS) data.  The national unemployment rate for April was 14.7%, up from 4.4% the previous month and 3.6% in April 2019.  JFS reported Thursday more than 1.2 million Ohioans, or about 21% of the state’s civilian labor force, had filed initial claims for unemployment compensation over the previous nine weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic and related restrictions on business activity.  
• At least 5.5 million coronavirus infections have been reported around the world — more than 1.6 million of them in the United States, where the death toll is nearing 100,000.
• Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s emergencies program, warned North America, Southeast Asia, Europe and other regions against scaling back coronavirus restrictions and public health measures too quickly.  His comments came as crowds in the United States flooded newly reopened beaches and other public spaces over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, and as officials in Europe increased calls to reopen the European Union’s internal borders in anticipation of its summer holiday season. The former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday said the small increase of hospitalizations because of the coronavirus is probably due to reopening measures.
• The ripple effects of the pandemic are likely to cause meat shortages to worsen as the virus spreads through America’s meatpacking plants. Infections at three of the nation’s largest meat processors have quadrupled over the past month despite new safety measures. 
• More than 1.5 million people passed through U.S. airports during Memorial Day weekend in a significant increase from recent weeks, but which still comprised less than 13 percent of air travel during the same period last year.

Ohio COVID-19 Data Curves

The following are graphic representations of reported cases, hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths using Ohio Department of Health data and expanded CDC definitions.

Friday – 305,764 tested – 2.62% of the population – 8,679 additional tests since Thursday

Saturday – 314,374 tested – 2.69% of the population - 8,610 additional tests since Friday

Sunday – 322,419 tested – 2.76% of the population – 8,045 additional tests since Saturday

Monday – 330,334 tested – 2.83% of the population – 7,915 additional tests since Sunday

Tuesday – 337,221 tested – 2.88% of the population – 6,887 additional tests since Monday

Key websites

General state updates - https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/

Office of Small Business Relief - https://businesshelp.ohio.gov/ 

Ohio Manufacturing Alliance to Fight COVID-19 - https://repurposingproject.com/ 

Unemployment compensation - http://jfs.ohio.gov/ouio/CoronavirusAndUI.stm

Ohio benefits application - https://benefits.ohio.gov/

SharedWork Ohio - http://jfs.ohio.gov/ouio/SharedWorkOhio/

Job openings - https://jobseeker.ohiomeansjobs.monster.com/home.aspx