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(COLUMBUS, Ohio)—Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Dr. Amy Acton, MD,
MPH, today provided the following updates on Ohio's response to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
NEW CONGREGATE CARE UNIFIED RESPONSE TEAMS:
Governor DeWine announced today the formation of new Congregate Care
Unified Response Teams to test residents and staff members in Ohio's
nursing homes.
"Nursing facilities have been aggressive regarding testing and
managing COVID-19 outbreaks on their own, but this effort will
provide them with additional resources," said Governor DeWine. "As
we continue to ramp up our testing in Ohio, we must deploy our
resources in a way that will save the most lives."
Beginning this week, the Congregate Care Unified Response Teams,
which will include medically-trained members of the Ohio National
Guard, will begin testing residents and staff within nursing homes
on two parallel paths:
All staff in all Ohio nursing facilities will be tested to help
nursing home administrators gauge the status of the virus in their
facilities and help isolate the virus to stop it from infecting
their community.
Testing will be conducted in facilities where residents or workers
have confirmed or assumed positive cases. Testing will be conducted
on all staff, and the testing of residents will be based on a
clinically-driven strategy that targets those who have likely been
exposed to COVID-19. By testing residents based on their potential
interaction with a confirmed COVID-19 case, the nursing facility
will be better equipped to isolate the virus and contain spread
within the facility.
In addition, the Congregate Care Unified Response Teams will begin
the testing of all residents and staff members in the state’s eight
developmental centers to try to limit the spread of COVID-19 in
congregate care settings.
CURRENT OHIO DATA:
There are 33,006 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Ohio
and 2,002 confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths. A total of 5,579
people have been hospitalized, including 1,450 admissions to
intensive care units. In-depth data can be accessed by visiting
coronavirus.ohio.gov.
Video of today's full update, including versions with foreign
language translation, can be viewed on the Ohio Channel's YouTube
page.
For more information on Ohio's response to COVID-19, visit
coronavirus.ohio.gov or call 1-833-4-ASK-ODH.
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