Recap of the press conference given March 25 by Governor Mike DeWine and Director of the Ohio Department of Health, Dr. Amy Acton:

• PPE: national stockpile share is not enough. If you can donate PPE, please do so: N95 masks, gloves, gowns, face shields or goggles

• Bill working its way through General Assembly: passed by Senate and House will take up tonight.

• 704 confirmed cases, 10 deaths; testing still limited; median age 51; 333 female, 371 male; 182 hospitalized; 75 in ICU; 24 from long term care facilities; 116 healthcare workers.

  • Total testing in Ohio: 14,764 (voluntary reporting only, not 100% accurate; still don’t have data on negative tests)

  • Over 20% hospitalized; over half of those hospitalized are in the ICU; need to double ICU capacity.

  • Number and severity of cases is increasing in people aged 40-50 years old.

• Dr. Acton: “Not only do I see a bright future for us, I see a bright right now for us.” These times when you feel like you’re entering these dark woods, it’s really a time to find wonder. Everyone at home- keep being a force for good.

• US DOT: cutting some red tape for obtaining and renewing commercial driver’s licenses to keep supply chain going

• Utility assistance: Home Energy Assistance Program (federally) will run through May 1st (usually ends in March) for energy/ heating assistance

• Essential businesses- read the order- use your own good judgment on the plain language of this order.

  • It is recommended that you create a document with the justifications about how you deem yourself essential and how you’re complying with the safety requirements. If you’re violating this, you will get called on by a competitor, neighbor, employee, etc.

  • We will need to be fair and hold everyone accountable; enforcement has begun already and will continue.

  • Whether essential business or not, these safe workplace guidelines are going to be with us for a long time- you will still need to create a safe work environment per these standards for a while after we return to work.

  • Start reading the order from the perspective that your business is closed. Then look at exceptions- exceptions are there so we can eat, get prescriptions, etc.- to determine if you fall under an exception.

  • Even if you meet the exception for essential business, you are required to implement the health and safety requirements within the order, and if you can’t, you can’t stay open.

  • Taking action against a business already today with more to come. We’re relying on people to follow this order.

  • Don’t call the police or local health department or the COVID hotline with questions about interpreting the order- they will direct you to read the order. Only call law enforcement or the health department about essential businesses if you’re calling to report a potential violation.

• Unemployment: people are still calling and emailing saying that they can’t get on the website and can’t get through by phone. We’re doing everything we can to keep it up and keep it going. Over 400,000 contacts through website yesterday from peopke seeking information. We’re doing everything we can with the technology; please be patient. ODJFS is reporting that the website has not gone down today, despite reporters receiving complaints as late as this afternoon from people who’ve been unable to file online or get through by phone.  

• DeWine: One of the lessons that will come from this pandemic when it’s done is that we’ve got to do better funding public health- we need to provide more funding and regularly.

• Relief for 1099/self-employed: working on getting federal dollars to try to include them in unemployment benefits; the stimulus package moving through Congress right now has some relief in there for 1099s- details are not yet available as to what that will look like.

• We’re expanding our healthcare workforce: deploying student nurses and medical students, returning from retirement- staffing is going to be an issue; it’s not that we just need to increase bed capacity, we also need to increase the number of doctors and nurses on the front line

• Homemade masks: when we don’t have enough PPE, we’re going to have to use creative solutions; the mesh from then homemade masks won’t prevent to the extent of N95 masks, but they can assist when you’re sick to help prevent infecting other people. Not to that point in hospitals yet.