COLUMBUS, Ohio - Eighty-eight people in the state have tested positive for the new coronavirus and 26 are hospitalized, the Ohio Department of Health announced Wednesday afternoon.
This is up from Tuesday, when 67 people were sick and 17 people were hospitalized.
Officials also announced more business and government closures. They also struck a somber tone with the reality of testing -- that most people who will get sick will not be tested.
“Do not be afraid if you cannot get a test. I want you to treat this like a very bad flu,” said Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton, a licensed preventive medicine physician. "And I want you to listen to our governor, and we will come to you every day, and talk you through what is ahead. And we will do this together.”
Ohio situation on Wednesday
The age range of the people who have tested positive is 2 to 91, Acton said.
The 2-year-old is hospitalized. The median age is 48.5 years.
Thirty-three patients are female and 55 male, Acton said.
The 2-year-old child was part of a household where there was another confirmed case, Acton said.
“We have a shortage of tests,” Acton said, explaining that there are more people with the illness who haven’t been tested.
Acton said that people can test negative for the disease, even if they are positive. A certain level of viral loads is necessary before a test comes back positive.
“We may never know fully who was exposed during this time,” she said.
BMV closures
At the close of business Wednesday, all but five Bureau of Motor Vehicles locations will be closed. The locations serve around 1 million people who go through their doors in the state each month, Gov. Mike DeWine announced at the daily briefing.
“That’s an opportunity for us to slow this down,” he said.
The ones that will remain open will be those for commercial driver’s license services because the ability to move goods is essential at this time, he said.
DeWine said he’ll ask law enforcement to not ticket people whose licenses have expired at this time.
Personal services
Barber shops, salons, tattoo parlors and spas will also be closed Wednesday, he said.
Thermometers at work
Businesses are being asked to take the temperature of every employee every day before they come into work.
“We’re asking them to be very, very aggressive in regard to cleaning surfaces, in regard to having the availability of soap, water, the availability of having hand sanitizer.
“All of this comes back to separation. As I’ve talked to people, I get a lot of emails and I get a lot of texts, I think Ohioans are really beginning to understand where we are and what they have to do,” he said. “But it’s also clear to me some of our fellow citizens really do not understand it. They do not get it. This is a crisis you’ll never see in your life.”
Coronavirus is twice as contagious as the flu and 20 times as deadly, he said.
Counties
Nineteen Ohio counties have confirmed cases.
- Ashland (1)
- Belmont (2)
- Butler (8)
- Coshocton (2)
- Cuyahoga (38)
- Darke (1)
- Delaware (1)
- Franklin (7)
- Geauga (1)
- Huron (1)
- Lake (2)
- Lorain (6)
- Lucas (1)
- Mahoning (3)
- Medina (4)
- Stark (3)
- Summit (4)
- Trumbull (2)
- Tuscarawas (1)
Ohio National Guard
DeWine said that the Ohio National Guard will increasingly be seen at hospitals. They have tents to help hospitals set up areas to treat coronavirus patients away from the general population.
The National Guard will also be helping at food banks.
Coronavirus testing
DeWine told people not to fixate on testing.
“Testing is limited, our testing capacity is limited, it will in all likelihood remain limited,” DeWine said. “But we should also understand if you’re worried about a family member or you’re worried about yourself, that you may have the virus, you feel like you need to get tested, I understand that concern.”
Most people won’t need to get tested. If someone feels they’re sick with COVID-19, they should stay isolated at home. It’s the best thing one can do. And all family members should stay at home as well.
The vast majority of people who will get coronavirus will not have severe enough symptoms to go to the hospital, he said.
“Keeping our heath workers -- our doctors, our nurses, our first responders, others involved in the health care system -- keeping them healthy is absolutely essential so they can take care of the rest of us,” DeWine said.
Doctors want to just test the sickest to limit use of their personal protective equipment -- such as masks and gowns.
Stay home
The virus’s role is to reproduce and DeWine said people are integral to that. So it’s important to fight back by simply staying at home and maintaining space.
“With or without the test, the virus is here. it lives among us. And we must be at war with it,” DeWine said.
Unemployment claims
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said there have been 78,000 unemployment claims in recent days.
To put that in perspective, Husted said two weeks ago there were just 6,500 claims.
“We’re going to get through this,” Husted said. “This will be tough. We all have to pull together."
Husted said that as many as 20% of the workforce could be unemployed during the pandemic.
Advice for families
First Lady Fran DeWine offered some advice for families at home with kids, since schools have been ordered closed.
Parents can read to their children. She’s started to read the Little House on the Prairie series to one of her granddaughters.
“One of my favorite things over the years to do with my children and my grandchildren is to cook with them,” she said.
She’s going to make homemade noodles with her grandchildren.
“Just little things like that I think can help bring families together," she said.
She’ll take some food to her mother, who is 93 and lives in her own home.
“What I’m trying to do right now is try to teach her to FaceTime with the kids,” she said.
Salt, flour and water creates play dough, she said. Recipes can be found at Facebook.com/frandewine.
Soon it will be warm and people can plant their gardens. Children can play outside.
Fran DeWine said she immediately worried when she heard schools were closing how children who receive free and reduced lunch -- which for many Ohio kids constitutes their only meal -- would get food. She said people have stepped up.
Worldwide, U.S. situation
Across the globe on Wednesday afternoon, over 211,000 people had been confirmed to have COVID-19, which is caused by the coronavirus. Over 8,700 people have died.
In the U.S., over 7,300 people have tested positive for coronavirus and 115 people have died. The actual number of infected people is expected to be much higher than official estimates, due to the testing shortage.
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67 confirmed Ohio coronavirus cases : Gov. Mike DeWine’s Tuesday, March 17 briefing
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