DeWine orders hiring freeze in state government and budget and spending cuts to ensure social safety net is available as state revenues decline

Recap of the March 23, 2020 press conference held by Governor Mike DeWine and Director of the Ohio Department of Health, Dr. Amy Acton:

Dr. Acton: We’re on the “sharp way up” on the curve; we’ve only seen the tip of this.

• Day cares: effective Thursday, special temporary pandemic license required for providers to stay open; priority placement for children of healthcare workers, first responders, etc.; parents can find list of licensed providers and enroll at jfs.ohio.gov/cdc

• State finances: ordering the immediate hiring freeze in state gov’t w/ exception of positions needed for coronavirus response and management of necessary processes; travel freeze continues; freeze on new contract services; all members of Cabinet instructed to look for budget and spending cuts of up to 20%; project spending pulled back to slow spending

• Stay at home order in effect tonight at 11:59 p.m. Only leave if essential- food, groceries, pharmacy, doctor; keep distance and limit trips

• Essential businesses: if you fall under an exception and are essential, you can stay open; if you are in the supply chain for an essential services or production, you can stay open. Essential businesses must operate with essential employee-protection guidelines in place in accordance to the stay at home order; if they can’t provide a safe work environment, they can’t stay open.

• 442 confirmed cases, 104 hospitalized, 6 deaths w/ others under investigation; age range from under 1 year old to 93 years old; median age 52

• Primary care docs: telemedicine/phone flexibility is highly encouraged.

• PPE numbers coming out: we have received a very limited supply federally and small supply cashed in Ohio; holding 20% back and everything else is going out; awaiting federal shipments needed desperately; businesses in Ohio are working to create our own. Everything is going out- hospitals should expect a small shipment, but it’s all we have.

• Dr. Acton: keep in mind that modeling in the media is comparing “apples to oranges” when looking at where the US is right now and data from other countries who are in a different phase of response. Ex. herd immunity is a discussion for a different phase - how we slowly come out of this, not this phase when we’re gearing up and beginning the fight.

• Ohio is not reporting negative testing; hospitals are starting to run some in-lab, so we don’t have accurate numbers from all private companies involved in testing currently. ODH is working on getting reporting on all data relating to testing numbers and will make all data available once they have it.

• Extending city tax filing deadlines to mirror federal extended filing is up to the legislature; DeWine believes they will be considering this. 

• Conference calls w/ mayors and law enforcement- orders can be enforced by local health department, police, sheriff, etc.; not looking for arrests or lots of citations; if there’s a violation and the police are aware, police should go speak with them directly and give them a warning then decide what, if any, further action is needed. The hope is that people comply with the order, which is law, and that we won’t have to enforce those laws. We wouldn’t have issued this order if it wasn’t necessary to save lives. Police officers will continue to make decisions about how they enforce the law, including this law, on a case-by-case basis.

• If a bar is operating that shouldn’t be operating, they could lose their liquor license through administrative action.

• Working with prisons to ensure testing and plans to keep prisoners safe, such as implementing a system where new prisoners go into reception then remain there for a 5 week period of time before being released into the general population.

• Hospitals are at about 75% capacity around the state. Increase in ER visits for “flu-like” illness. Hospitals are recruiting nursing and medical school students to help with contact tracing; healthcare professionals coming out of retirement to provide offline support to field calls, etc.

• Don’t call 911 about stay-at-home order or to report violations; local health department to report violations in businesses; try to bring violations to the attention of employer to get them fixed first. Employers need to understand the protections and implement them- employers need to take ownership of this.

• Unemployment numbers: US Dept. of Labor asked Ohio not to release unemployment numbers, so they’re following that guidance; site wasn’t designed for this unprecedented amount of traffic, and tech team has been charged with fixing the capacity issues; Husted is hopeful that the system will be more functional and dependable in coming days; they are aware of the website and call-in issues.

• DeWine: Attorney General is dealing with questions about whether or not abortions are essential or non-essential under the order halting elective surgeries; DeWine will not comment as to whether an abortion is considered an essential or non-essential procedure by the State under that order.

• Communication and materials being put out in as many languages as possible as quickly as they can to ensure non-English-speaking immigrants have necessary information. If you help someone leave a message with a call-back number, a translator can call them back and answer questions in their language.

• Hospitals implementing “hacks” to preserve PPE. We have an entire team working on securing PPE; hospitals are being innovative, such as moving IV’s outside of patient rooms so nurses don’t need to “suit up” to enter the room to change an IV bag. Battelle is working with labs on methods of sterilization of masks and equipment.