March 26 Coronavirus Update: U.S. Officially Surpasses Rest of World in Number of Coronavirus Cases; Ohio Surge Could See 6,000-8,000 New Cases a Day

• Weddings and funerals: not prohibited under order, but please postpone large gatherings like the ceremony/reception. We have to postpone things to avoid putting other family members at risk.

Dr. Acton: “We’ve got to even clamp down more.”; “We’ve got to stay home and we can’t go the other direction right now.”

• 867 confirmed cases, 15 deaths, 223 hospitalizations, 91 ICU; 51 median age; 60 counties (of 88)

  • Up 704 from yesterday

  • ICU cases as young as 23 years old

  • 17% of positive cases are healthcare workers

  • Much of Toledo health department is in isolation or quarantine after 2 confirmed cases

• State health department officials are now predicting anywhere from 6,000 to 8,000 new cases of coronavirus a day when the epidemic peaks in Ohio; peak is now expected in mid-to-late April.

  • Had no social distancing measures been taken, we would be in the middle of peak surge right now with 40,000 new cases each day.

  • Dr. Acton: Impact on healthcare system has been decreased by 50-75%, but we need to do more. We will surge. We may see as high as 6,000 to 8,000 new cases per day. We will exceed our hospital capacity, but it will not be as drastic as had we did nothing. What we’re doing is working, but we need to do more. We need to flatten the curve more and push our surge further out to May to decrease the per day impact during the surge even more.

  • Any time we let up on these measures right now, we will see surges. We will need better testing before we can even consider lessening restrictions. We need tighter restrictions, if anything.

• According to new projections, the anticipated need for N95 respirator masks is almost 42% greater than what are available.

• Hospital capacity:

  • Negative airflow rooms, ICU rooms, ECMO (oxygenation) rooms- currently have space, but we know we will need more than our current available capacity by double.

  • Even increasing capacity, planning for capacity usually assumes an average stay of 3 days; average stays for coronavirus patients are 20+ days. Not only will we exceed capacity, patients stays will be extremely long.

Dr. Acton: Patients infected with COVID-19 suffer from symptoms for up to 9-12 days between onset of symptoms and hospitalization date; hospitalized a week or more before being transferred to the ICU; another 4 weeks in the ICU before death.

• If interested in helping fellow Ohioans: together@govenor.ohio.gov

• Ohio unemployment claims: for the week ending March 21st- 187,780 claims; in all of 2019, total- 369,594 claims

  • Adding servers and building capacity on website; if you don’t get through, your claim and benefits will be retroactive to the date you qualified for it.

  • DeWine: The money will be there. Don’t worry. Continue to apply. We want you to.

• Essential businesses: read the plain language of the order.

• 4/28 vote by mail date: voteohio.gov for absentee ballot

• Homemade PPE: use for personal use to help save equipment for healthcare workers; we hope not to get there with healthcare workers