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(COLUMBUS, Ohio)—Ohio Governor Mike DeWine today
provided the following updates on Ohio's response to the COVID-19
pandemic.
INCREASING CASES
Governor DeWine today cautioned that the continuing increase in
COVID-19 cases indicates that significant numbers of infections are
likely this winter unless citizens take steps to mitigate and
control the spread of the virus.
"Although a vaccine is on the way in the future, we can't control
the timetable of the development of a vaccine - but we can control
how much this flares up until then," said Governor DeWine. "We have
avoided the large outbreaks that other countries and other states
have seen, and so far, the combined efforts of Ohioans have kept the
virus in check. We can't let our guards down now. We need to
continue taking basic safety measures of wearing masks, keeping
distance, and avoiding large gatherings."
In the last seven days, Ohio COVID-19 cases have averaged 1,475
cases per day by report date as compared to an average of
approximately 1,000 cases per day only two weeks ago. Ohio's current
positivity rate is 4.1 percent as compared to 2.7 percent on
September 23 and 24. A total of 51 counties are considered high
incidence and/or Alert Level 3 on Ohio's Public Health Advisory
System.
A new public service announcement featuring former Ohio State
coaches Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer encourages everyone to stay in
the game and to stick to the game plan.
OSU PSA
CHILDHOOD VACCINES
In Ohio and across the country, there has been a decrease in
vaccinations administered to protect against diseases like measles,
chickenpox, whooping cough, and polio, and today Governor DeWine
today encouraged parents not to delay their children's well-visit
vaccinations.
"While we do not have a vaccine yet for COVID-19, we can prevent
more than a dozen other diseases from harming our children and our
communities," said Governor DeWine. "It is critical that Ohioans and
providers remain vigilant about keeping children up to date on these
vaccines."
In the coming days, the Ohio Department of Medicaid will launch
several initiatives to encourage childhood immunizations among its
members. These efforts will be aimed at increasing safe, convenient
access to vaccinations by providing mobile vaccination clinics and
reducing administrative barriers for providers.
Governor DeWine also unveiled a new public service announcement that
stresses the importance of childhood vaccines.
Childhood Vaccinations
LAB CAPACITY DASHBOARD
Governor DeWine today announced the creation of a new Lab Capacity
Dashboard to help pharmacists, nursing homes, colleges and
universities, employers, and others administering COVID-19 tests
find a lab to run their samples. This new resource will help connect
groups that are testing with available labs in order to ease
turnaround times and inform Ohioans of their COVID-19 status.
The new dashboard provides self-reported information about labs that
can run tests, including hours of operation, types of tests they
accept, estimated turn-around time, and locations. Labs with
available capacity can sign up on the website to be included in this
dashboard.
BINAX-NOW TESTING PLAN
Governor DeWine today discussed plans for Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19
antigen screening tests that the federal government is providing to
Ohio.
This week, Ohio is deploying thousands of these screening tests to
colleges and universities to help them implement proactive screening
plans. Next week, Ohio will begin sending tens of thousands of
screening tests to nursing homes for both routine and outbreak
testing requirements.
Governor DeWine emphasized that lab-based PCR tests are still
considered the “gold standard” test that provides the most accurate
results, and antigen tests can have false positives and false
negatives.
"The opportunity to test more broadly and more often make this an
important step forward in our fight against COVID-19 spread, even
with the lower sensitivity and specificity of these tests," said
Governor DeWine. "We do have protocols to follow up on results that
are most likely to be false, but we need to be aware that this is
part of testing at this scale." Governor DeWine also cautioned that
testing should not be considered a substitute for precautions such
as wearing masks, social distancing, and avoiding large gatherings.
CURRENT COVID-19 DATA
There are 161,678 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Ohio
and 5,017 confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths. A total of 16,565
people have been hospitalized, including 3,447 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 |
