COLUMBUS – New guidelines expected Thursday from President Donald Trump are aiming to ease restrictions in areas with low transmission of the coronavirus but the ultimate decisions will remain with governors, like Mike DeWine, who is thinking in terms of steps, not leaps.
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DeWine announced during his daily Statehouse news briefing Wednesday that he has asked the Ohio Hospital Association to begin developing a plan to resume elective surgical procedures were delayed or deferred under orders from the Department of Health to expand hospital capacity for COVID-19 patients and to conserve the personal protective equipment, or PPE, that is in short supply.
“This is a beginning, really, the first step back,” De Wine said.
He asked that the plan be completed by April 22.
There are nearly 7,800 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in all but one of Ohio’s 88 counties and 361 deaths.
Business leaders are telling Trump they need more coronavirus testing and personal protective equipment before people can safely go back to work and that the return to normalcy will be anything but swift.
DeWine and health director Dr. Amy Acton have been delivering the same message to Ohioans but, in what could also be seen as a first step on the road back, DeWine says he has asked the state industries and businesses to formulate plans for keeping employees and customers safe when restrictions are lifted, knowing the threat of the virus will not have disappeared.
“When businesses reopen, they’re going to have to deal with COVID-19. They’re going to have to deal with how they keep their employees protected, how they keep their customers protected,” he said.
He did not ask for a formal plan but suggested the closed businesses study those that have remained open and base their protocols on those that have been successful in grocery stores and other businesses that continued to serve customers during the crisis.
Acton delivered a reminder that “normal” would look different for some time to come.
“These masks are part of the future,” she said, displaying a homemade cotton face mask designed to keep anyone with the virus from spreading it. “They’re sort of functional social distancing and it’s really, really important.”
She and DeWine both say life will not return to the pre-virus status quo until a vaccine is developed, if then.