Gov. Mike DeWine opened a new phase of his Restarting Ohio plan by announcing that his administration is putting a new focus on stopping the spread of coronavirus in nursing homes and congregant care facilities.
This week, he said, teams of up to 10 people are to begin visiting every nursing home in the state that has been affected by COVID-19. DeWine is enlisting medically-trained members of the Ohio National Guard to be a part of these “congregate care unified response teams” that will test all staff members, then residents based on assessments of each resident.
This new battlefront will be an ongoing process “over a number of weeks,” the governor said, and the teams will submit periodic reports.
DeWine also said his “congregate care unified response teams” will begin the testing of all residents and staff members in the state’s eight developmental centers, also in an effort to try to limit the spread of COVID-19 in those settings.
DeWine indicated his next briefing with reporters would be Thursday afternoon.
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Last week, DeWine reminded Ohioans that driver’s licenses that expired after March 9 are valid until 90 days after the state of emergency ends or Dec. 1, whichever comes first. Many services, such as registration renewal, can be done on the BMV’s website at bmv.ohio.gov.
Long lines were reported at BMV sites Tuesday.
On Saturday, May 31, summer day camps and daycare facilities are slated to reopen.
On June 1, banquet centers and catering businesses, both of which serve events such as wedding receptions, will be allowed to reopen with crowd size limited to 300 people. Here are the guidelines for that business sector to reopen.
>>RELATED: Catering, banquet centers can reopen June 1
About racinos and casinos: DeWine said he is purposely spacing out reopenings to prevent a second wave of the virus spread.
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LATEST STATE DATA: As of Wednesday afternoon, there are 33,439 cases in the state, 2,044 deaths, and 5,700 hospitalizations, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
Ohio has an estimated population of approximately 11.7 million, census records show.
Of the state’s positive cases, 19.5% are from Ohio’s prisons. At those prisons, there has been an increase in testing.
[ Local cases, deaths reported to Ohio Department of Health ]
There have been 347,477 people tested for coronavirus in Ohio. In the state, 5,067 cases are health care workers, which is 15 percent of the cases.
It is important to note the number of confirmed cases is not a true reflection of actual cases in the state because of the limited amount of testing available. The hope is that the number of cases will be more accurate because of the expansion of the testing standards.
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