COLUMBUS – Governor Mike DeWine wasn’t ruling out new restrictions or health directives to get the raging coronavirus wildfire under control in Ohio but he also wasn’t giving out any clues about what they might entail if any are issued.
“We’re going to come out some lists of things – here’s how you do certain things – and we don’t want to be presumptuous and get in people’s lives, but I think people need to know how they can do it a lot safer. And, it does come back to something I have said before and that is we can do most of the things we’ve always done. We just have to do them differently,” he said during his regular coronavirus briefing Thursday.
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The state reported several record-high pandemic statistics on Thursday, including hospitalizations and daily cases.
Ohio reported over 5,000 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 for the first time on Friday — 5,008 — for total of 240,178 with 5,494 deaths and 20,246 hospitalizations, an increase of 231 from the day before.
For the first time, DeWine says all Ohio counties are now high-incident locations for the spread of the coronavirus and 86% of Ohioans are now living in a county at “red” Level 3 alert on the state’s Public Health Advisory System (see map above).
“There have been enough cases during the past two weeks that the risk of catching this virus in all 88 counties is very real and very concerning,” DeWine said.
Pickaway and Fairfield counties were upgraded to “red,” meaning Delaware County is the only county in central Ohio still at Level 2.
There were a record 2,075 Ohioans hospitalized with COVID-19 Thursday, a 55 percent increase in hospitalized patients compared to two weeks ago (see graph), DeWine said.
The number grew to 2,170 with a record 547 in intensive-care units with the virus. The previous record for intensive care admissions was 533 in April, DeWine said.
DeWine stressed that the new record number of cases is not due to increased testing capacity in the state. Since September 24, the total number of tests in Ohio has increased by approximately 44 percent, but positive cases have increased 280 percent in the same time period, he said.
“I ask everyone to recognize their personal responsibility in slowing the spread of this deadly disease. It’s up to every citizen in Ohio to choose to slow the spread by wearing masks, distancing, and making overall smart decisions,” DeWine said.