Coronavirus Pandemic: DeWine addresses sports attendance; what you need to know

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine held a press briefing this afternoon about the latest developments surrounding coronavirus in the state.

The following announcements have been made:

• Darke County has now surpassed Mercer County as the county with the highest occurrence of coronavirus in a county. Mercer County still is the second highest. Preble County sits with the fifth highest occurrence and Auglaize County is at seventh.
• DeWine addressed the sports order issued last week, which prompted several districts to allow some general public spectators at games. The state issued the order with a maximum capacity of 1,500 or 15 percent of capacity of fixed seating, whichever is lesser. “The main purpose of permitting spectators at school sports events is for officials and family/household members and loved ones of players, coaches, team staff members, other event participants (like marching band and honor guard) for both home and away teams to attend,” DeWine said.
• DeWine said it will be up to local school districts to enforce social distancing at sporting events.
• Clark County Health Commissioner Charles Patterson joined DeWine’s press briefing to discuss the county’s response to coronavirus. He talked about previous outbreaks at Dole and a Madison County plant that impacted the county. Patterson also said the community spread is starting to make it into the county’s long-term care facilities. He said Clark County has seen a jump from an average of 55 cases per week at long-term facilities to recently reaching 75-80 cases per week.
• Patterson said Clark County has seen an increase in masking complaints since the state’s mandatory mask order began.
• Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said the antibody survey the state has been doing is nearly complete. The latest data from the American Red Cross showed that 1.6 percent of plasma donors have tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies.
• DeWine said the state has applied to receive the $300 additional per person on unemployment from the federal government following President Trump’s executive order. DeWine said the state hopes to start paying out those payments, which will be retroactive, sometime in mid-to-late September if everything goes according to plan.

Things you need to know today, Monday:

• All Miami University student-athletes who have returned to Oxford, and any coaches and staff who were in contact with them, are being quarantined on the order of the Butler County General Health District.
• Sunday, The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients with plasma from recovered patients.
• DeWine targeted for impeachment by fellow Republicans
• Coronavirus: Ohio State University suspends more than 200 students for violations on gatherings
• 2 Preble County districts begin classes as county remains in ‘red’ Level 3 status
• Zoom outage has impact on local colleges starting remote classes
• Local districts release football ticket info, seating plans ahead of Friday night kickoff
• Pandemic child care licenses being considered for businesses, rec centers as schools go remote

LATEST STATE DATA: As of Tuesday afternoon, there have been at least 116,495 confirmed or probable cases in the state, 3,996 deaths, and 12,956 hospitalizations, according to the Ohio Department of Health. 96,728 people are presumed to have recovered from the virus in the state.

Ohio has an estimated population of approximately 11.7 million, census records show.

[ Local cases, deaths reported to Ohio Department of Health ]

There have been 2,021,722 people tested for the coronavirus in Ohio, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

A total of 13,048 health care workers have tested positive which is about 11 percent of the cases.

[ Local cases, deaths reported to Ohio Department of Health ]

Cox Media Group