Scioto County has recorded its ninth confirmed positive case of COVID-19. The Scioto County Health Department says there is also one probable case in the county. Ohio’s number of probable cases passed 18,000. During his daily briefing, Governor Mike DeWine addressed Coronavirus in Ohio’s prisons and the shortage of PPE available for doctor’s offices. Let’s break it down into four sections.
COVID-19 Numbers
- Probable Cases – 18,027
Confirmed Cases -17,285 - Probable Deaths -975
Confirmed Deaths – 898 - Hospitalizations 3,533
- Scioto County – 9 positive 1 probable
Dr. Amy Acton said Ohio would soon be expanding its testing. Starting Monday, the state will begin testing for antibodies. She said there would be more information on what’s happening with testing tomorrow.
Back To Work
As Ohio begins to reopen tomorrow, officials addressed the potential shortage of PPE in offices and medical practices.
Dr. Amy Acton said that it was important that dentist offices and doctors’ offices that don’t have appropriate PPE not open tomorrow.
“Each practice is going to have to assess if they have what they need to open,” she said.
Governor DeWine said, “The supply chains are a mess. It’s possible there’s a dentist out there that doesn’t have the supplies. It’s a work in progress.”
PPE In Prisons
Ohio’s prison system has been hit hard by COVID-19. Governor DeWine says he’s working hard to make sure employees have the necessary protective equipment.
“Our corrections employees at state prisons are on the front line every day, and we want to do what we can to help keep them safe.”
Over the last few weeks, we have delivered to the prisons more than 1.1 million pieces of PPE. This includes:
- 108,000 N95 masks
- 256,000 gloves
- 684,000 procedure masks
- 10,000 provider gowns
- 100,000 cloth masks for inmates
He said it’s a challenge as a lot of the equipment does come out of China.
There are currently 3,890 cases in Ohio’s prisons. There are no positive cases reported at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.
Testing in Prisons
Ohio’s Director of Rehabilitation and Corrections, Dr. Annette Chambers-Smith spoke about the changes she’s made to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus.
“Our staff are working double shifts. We’ve gotten help from the National Guard. Definitely it’s a team.”
Dr. Michael Para, an infectious disease specialist from OSU’s Wexner Medical Center, said that the testing at the Marion Correctional Facility taught them a great deal about COVID-19. He said that the number of positive cases that had no symptoms was startling.
Director Chambers-Smith said, “There’s way more asymptomatic people that we thought possible.” She said that there are no plans to test every inmate in the system. But that they would test inmates before releasing them.
She also explained why prisons had switched to two meals a day instead of three. Inmates are now served brunch to allow more time for sanitizing between meals. Inmates are allowed to take food back to their cells.
Early Release
Chambers-Smith said the early release of over 1,000 prisoners has created more space in prisons and allowed prisoners to practice social distancing.
She said they are continuing to consider prisoners nearing the end of their sentence for early release.
“We’re trying to do this in a way that doesn’t repeat what we’ve seen in other places. Where people leave and immediately re-offend or kill someone.”
