06/29/2020

2020-06-29 OH Gov. DeWine COVID-19 Update

 

Monday, June 29	47524 Confirmed Cases	51046 Total Cases (CDC)	7746 Number of Hospitalizations	1961 ICU Admissions	2575 Confirmed Deaths	2818 Total Deaths (CDC)
Sunday, June 28	46790 Confirmed Cases	50309 Total Cases (CDC)	7681 Number of Hospitalizations	1946 ICU Admissions	2564 Confirmed Deaths	2807 Total Deaths (CDC)
Saturday, June 27	45969 Confirmed Cases	49455 Total Cases (CDC)	7624 Number of Hospitalizations	1916 ICU Admissions	2561 Confirmed Deaths	2804 Total Deaths (CDC)
Friday, June 26	45172 Confirmed Cases	48638 Total Cases (CDC)	7570 Number of Hospitalizations	1904 ICU Admissions	2545 Confirmed Deaths	2788 Total Deaths (CDC)

Updated daily at 2 p.m. - https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/ 

 

New orders/actions

 

• Nursing homes can allow outdoor visits for residents beginning on July 20, subject to standards.
• The current health orders will be extended through the end of the week.  New plans will be announced on Thursday.
• There will be no press conference tomorrow, unless events warrant.  The Governor and First Lady will be participating in a roundtable with First Lady Melania Trump regarding child welfare and foster care issues.

 

The Governor opened by addressing the numbers.  Ohio has been experiencing a significant increases in new cases per day over the last week and a half or so – with the 7-day average jumping from 487 on Sat. June 20 to 741 on Sat. June 27 and with a new one-day high of 987 on Fri. June 26 (excluding the prison testing highs).  The Governor particularly focused on the long term trend in hospitalizations.  Last week was the first week in increasing hospitalization utilization in over two months.  Utilization peaked at about 1000 in late April/early May and bottomed out on June 20 at around 500.  The current utilization is around 650.  Utilization is up particularly in the Dayton, Cincinnati and Cleveland regions.  In the other regions, it had been declining but now has leveled off.  Governor DeWine said that the state has plenty of capacity remaining and no region has reached 80% utilization of ICU beds, a point of serious concern, but that the upward trend is not a good sign.  The test positivity rate continues to remain around 5%. 

 

As noted last week, Hamilton and Montgomery Counties have been experiencing significant growth in positive cases and the R0 rate is above 1 in those counties.  Governor DeWine noted that the data shows these increases are not due to increased testing alone.  More people are visiting their doctors and testing positive; hospital utilization has increased, in fact it has doubled in Hamilton County this weekend.  Governor DeWine urged residents in the Dayton, Cincinnati and Cleveland regions to redouble their efforts to wear masks, maintain social distancing and stay home as much as possible.  Additional popup locations are being added in these areas to help address these surges. 

 

In response to questions from the media, the Governor said he does not have plans to place additional restrictions on those counties to address this increase.  However, they continue to monitor 7 specific parameters (which he will go through on Thursday) closely and may have to make decisions at some point.  For now, he is informing those areas of the increased risk, urging those residents to be more careful and get tested.

 

The Governor said they plan to announce the next phase of keeping Ohio open on Thursday, including more details on school reopenings – existing health orders will be extended through the end of the week to allow for the finalization of those plans. 

 

Nursing homes can begin outdoor visits for residents on July 20, provided that the facility can meet the recommendations – testing, spacing, PPE, etc.  This will be similar to the visits and procedures already occurring at assisted living facilities. 

 

General Harris of the Ohio National Guard joined the press conference to talk about the testing the Guard has been conducting.  The National Guard has been in 258 nursing homes (out of 960 homes statewide) to date and tested over 25,000 people through that effort.  They’ve also collected tests from over 5,000 people at 19 popup testing dates/sites as well. 

 

Lt. Governor Jon Husted noted that Ohio’s economy is starting to recover – 100,000 new jobs have been added.  He stressed that it is important for Ohioans to keep being careful as it is so important for businesses to stay open – many are saying to him that they cannot afford to close again, as is happening in Florida, Texas and Arizona, current hot spots.  Carl Satterwhite and Scott Robertson of RCF Group in Cincinnati joined the press conference to reinforce that message. 

 

Upcoming Calfee events

 

If you missed a prior webinar and would like to catch up, please visit: Calfee Webinars

 

Other items of note

 

• Ohio cities, including Columbus, have based their economic growth strategy on offering tax and development incentives to businesses in return for new jobs to generate more city income taxes, but that model is being threatened by a growing work-from-home (WFH) model rushed into place as a result of COVID-19. The potential for lost revenue is large: about 80 percent of Ohio businesses are located in a municipality and upsetting the revenue stream could threaten the financial sustainability of those communities, the Columbus Dispatch reports.
• Gilead Sciences, the maker of remdesivir, the first covid-19 treatment found to have worked in clinical trials, said it will charge U.S. hospitals $3,120 for the typical patient with private insurance for a full course of treatment.
• Universities that began letting student athletes return to campus have reported outbreaks among players and staff. More than 130 cases have been linked to 28 Division I universities’ athletic departments, according to the New York Times.  
• Hospitalizations at Houston Methodist Hospital have almost quadrupled since Memorial Day, and younger people are becoming the ones in need of care, according to Marc Boom, its chief executive.  In an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Boom said that about 60 percent of coronavirus patients in the hospital system are younger than 50 as infections in Houston continue to surge.  When coronavirus was first affecting the city, about 40 percent of patients in the eight-hospital system were younger than 50.

 

Ohio COVID-19 Data Curves

 

The following are graphic representations of reported cases, hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths using Ohio Department of Health data and expanded CDC definitions.

 

 

 

Friday – 718,086 tested – 6.15% of the population - 21,886 additional tests

Saturday – 741,353 tested – 6.35% of the population – 23,267 additional tests

Sunday – 753,246 tested – 6.45% of the population – 11,893 additional tests

Monday – website experiencing technical difficulties

 

Note: For an archive of all COVID-19 related First Alerts from Calfee, which are separate from these emails and focused on specific business topics, please visit the Calfee COVID-19 Resource Center: https://www.calfee.com/covid-19-resource-center

 

 

 

 

 

Maryellen K. Corbett​ Attorney at Law mcorbett@calfee.com 614.621.7754 Office 614.621.0010 Fax Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP 1200 Huntington Center ​41 South High Street Columbus ,  OH    43215‑3465   vCard Calfee.com | Info@Calfee.com | 888.CALFEE1 This electronic mail transmission may contain confidential and legally privileged information from the law firm of Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP intended only for the use of the individual(s) identified as addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents of this electronic mail transmission is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify me by telephone immediately.