Gov. Mike DeWine focused on Ohio’s return to school. Three doctors who specialize in children’s health joined in today’s press conference. DeWine showed a map showing the schools going back to school and the model they will be following – five-day return, hybrid, or virtual. This data is from public schools only.
The map showed 325 school districts in the state planning on return full time (590,000 students or 38%), 55 districts (25.6% of students) will be starting off online, and 154 (24.5% of students) will be hybrid. There are 78 districts the state doesn’t have the data on yet.
Schools are doing a very good job getting ready, DeWine said. Teachers, principals and school employees work hard every day when there’s no COVID to protect our kids, so DeWine said he has confidence they will continue to keep them safe when they go back. Whatever is going on in the community will be reflected in the schools. There is really no way of changing that no matter how good the schools are.
DeWine’s plea today to parents and grandparents and everyone else, if people want them to go to school in person and do the normal things they are used to doing, it’s incumbent upon everyone to do everything they can to keep the spread down in that community every way possible.
Dr. John Barnard, Chief of Pediatrics Nationwide Pediatrics, said children do get this infection, but fortunately most children are reasonably well with their symptoms. Ten% or less get very sick and need hospitalization. This can be serious in some children.
Over five months, 14,000 tests in children have been done in symptomatic children, 8.6% of those were positive. Most hospitals are testing children within the hospitals to get a look at the asymptomatic population. Barnard said they’ve done about 20,000 of these tests, 1.4% of those have been positive and have been rising in the past month or so to 2.9%. There seems to be an increase in this population of asymptomatic children positive cases. Older children are the highest prevalence of testing positive. Severity of the disease – those positive children we’ve encountered 8% have required admission, 1% have had to be admitted to ICU.
Dr. Patty Manning, Chief of Staff Cincinnati Children’s, said it’s safe to say that if a child has COVID they can be contagious whether they are symptomatic or not. Younger children who need closer contact in their care, may be able to spread it easier. If you can be distant from older children you are at less risk.
Older children are also at a great risk for spread because they are very active and interact with more people typically than younger kids. We do support in person education when possible. To do this safely, in order of importance- masking is recommended for all K-12 students and all staff, distancing as much as possible, hand hygiene needs to be on a regular schedule and made fun, lastly cleaning surfaces.
Cleaning surfaces is important but it’s to be ranked last in regards to the other measures because COVID on surfaces is not that hardy. All of these measures together create a robust package for safety, Manning said. Ventilation is important as well, at any time if a teacher can open a window, hold class outside, this will help as well.
Mask wearing behavior needs to be modeled by adults if we want our children to follow our lead. Let children know it is okay to be uncertain. Children look to us for recognition and approval for that uncertainty. Focus on learning together, with mask wearing rehearsals at home. Prepare kids for some structure resuming. Schedules and predictability help everybody. Crowded hallways are not optimal within schools. Ideally class schedules should be staggered.
Dr. Adam Mezoff, Chief Medical Officer at Dayton Children’s Hospital, said the best practices start at home. He presented a flow chart/algorithm and some case scenarios for schools to follow in regards to COVID quarantine and isolation. There is no greater ventilation than being outside. Anything schools can do outside is preferable. Determine the contact level based on the intensity of the exposure. Mezoff said it is hard to discern cumulative exposure vs intermittent exposure risk (5 minutes plus 5 plus 5, or 15 in a row).
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said people are all consuming a lot of overwhelming and difficult information and making difficult decisions. We are all in different circumstances. Nobody knows exactly how this is going to go. Husted reminded people that the governor has given Ohio a choice in this in regards to schools.
He said it’s known how to slow the spread of the virus. Back up, mask up, and wash up. These things work and if people do them, Ohioans will get a chance to do more things because the state will have slowed the spread.
Ohio Cases: 102,826
Ohio Hospitalizations: 11,760
ICU Admissions: 2,699
Ohio COVID Deaths: 3,708
*For daily state hospitalization data please visit: https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/dashboards/key-metrics/hospitalizations/key-metrics-on-hospitalizations scroll to the bottom, find the date you are looking for and hover your mouse over that bar.
Wood County Cases (total plus probable): 1,071
Wood County Hospitalizations: 104
Wood County Deaths: 58
Wood County Active Cases: 120
County EOC Objectives:
1. Coordinate the county’s response to limit spread of COVID-19; and maintain medical care.
2. Provide timely, clear, and consistent messaging to the public, stakeholders and media on the status of COVID-19 and actions the public can take to keep themselves safe.
3. Determine how county agencies will continue delivery of essential services to Wood County residents while following COVID-19 public health guidelines.
4. Prevent, identify, mitigate, and respond to COVID19 hotspots within the county.
EMA:
State EMA: As of 8 a.m., over the past 24 hours, the Ohio Department of Health reported 883 (101,731) total new cases, 64 (11,629) hospitalizations, four (3,673) deaths, and 15 (2,680) ICU admissions, which were below the 21- day averages. There are no hot spots identified in the last 24 hours by the Ohio Department of Health; they continue to monitor 5 other spots.
Warehouse capacity continues to be monitored as inbound supplies increase. State stockpiling and storage strategies continue to be developed through ESF-7 and the State EOC Unified Command. There will be an additional PPE push to all counties early next week. There are some KN90/KN95s being sent to public schools, they are also looking into channels to assist private schools as well.
Wood County remains at Level 2 or orange level. Level 2 indicates: Increased exposure and spread. Exercise high degree of caution. Follow all current health orders. Same guidelines as in Level 1.
• Avoid contact with anyone who is considered high-risk.
• High-risk individuals* should take extra care to follow precautions.
• Decrease in-person interactions outside household.
• Seek medical care as needed, but limit or avoid unnecessary visits to hospitals, nursing homes, and residential care facilities to see others as much as possible.
Ohio’s Public Health Advisory System is updated every Thursday. The system consists of four levels that provide Ohioans with guidance as to the severity of the problem in the counties in which they live. The levels are determined by seven data indicators that identify the risk level for each county and a corresponding color code to represent that risk level.
The Wood County EMA has a few cloth masks left for local government entities. Please contact us if you have a need. These will be given on a first come first served basis.
Please contact us:
– If you have PPE to donate, if you have any PPE needs or have any questions.
– The EMA has kits containing masks and hand sanitizer to be designated for local small businesses (under 100 total employees) that we will be able to push out soon. If you own a small business with less than 100 employees and are interested, please email us at woodcountyema@co.wood.oh.us .
– If you know citizens looking to purchase masks, please connect them with our office and we can give them the contact information of local mask sellers.
– The EMA has kits for Wood County for-profit small businesses (under 100 employees) that contain PPE and hand sanitizer. These kits were provided through JobsOhio to Wood County Economic Development and are at no cost to the business. These kits are first come, first served. Please email us with your business name, address, point of contact, and how many employees you have if you are interested.
Public Health:
There have been 102,826 COVID-19 cases in Ohio. There have been 1,071 cases (total confirmed plus probable) in Wood County, presently 120 active cases, 104 of those are or have been hospitalized, 58 deaths.
Wood County Community Health Center is celebrating National Health Center Week Aug. 9-15. Typically the health center would host an event at the health department giving the community the opportunity to tour the health center and collect other important information. Due to the ongoing pandemic the health center had to take a more creative approach to celebrating.
This year they plan to showcase each area of the health center throughout the week on Facebook. We work hard every day to help slow the spread of COVID-19. If you are sick or have been in close contact with a person who has COVID-19, a public health worker may call to ask you to stay at home and quarantine or isolate. This helps keep our community safe. Unless you give permission, your name will not be revealed to those you came in contact with, even if they ask. All information is protected. Be part of the solution and help slow the spread of COVID-19.
A new health commissioner has been selected in Wood County after the previous commissioner, Ben Batey, resigned from his position. Benjamin Robison was voted in during a special meeting of the Wood County Board of Health. Robison has roots in Bowling Green and spent the last five years leading emergency planning and response efforts for the Ohio Department of Health.
New signage is available to communicate the statewide mask mandate. Download a PDF at: www.coronavirus.woodcountyhealth.org .
A reminder to employers that requirements for workplaces remain in place. These include ensuring social distancing as much as possible, requiring masks unless one of the approved exceptions, encouraging sick employees to stay home. Also, even though testing is more readily available, it is not recommended that employers require a negative test for an employee to return to work or a letter from a doctor or the health department. The health department does not provide such letters. Employers can find more information at https://bitly.com/2CmSkod .
People who have been tested and are looking for test results should have received the information about how to get their results when they were tested. Do not call the health department for results.
Case follow-up and contact tracing – Confirmed and probable cases are reported to the health department. Several health department staff are involved in contacting cases and their close contacts to ensure isolation and quarantine guidelines are followed. In addition, a UT professor has enlisted a pool of trained nursing and other students to help the health department with interviews of cases and their close contacts.
Testing – testing locations and other local information, as well as links to ODH and CDC resources, can be found at Coronavirus.WoodCountyHealth.org and https://sites.google.com/view/wchdohio-coronavirus/home/Testing
Healthcare:
LTC facility staff are being tested every 2 weeks for COVID-19 as a directive from ODH. For agency resource requests, please contact us at: woodcountyema@co.wood.oh.us .
NAMI Wood County has a variety of programming beginning in August and into September. This programming is free and available to Wood County residents. The following program will be offered virtually: The final webinar in the Mental Health Conference Series will be held on Thursday from noon-1:30 p.m. This webinar will discuss mental health services during coronavirus. NAMI Family and Friends will be on Sept. 16 from 6-8 p.m. This free and online seminar will help inform individuals with loved ones with a mental illness on how to best support them. Beginning Sept. 14 from 3-5 p.m., NAMI Peer-to-Peer will be held online for individuals living with mental illness. This is a recovery-focused educational program for adults who wish to establish and maintain wellness in response to mental health challenges. Join a great gathering opportunity virtually. Nite Out with NAMI will be on Sept. 15 from 5-7 p.m. on the House Party app. NAMI Family-to-Family will begin on Sept. 21 from 6-8 p.m. online. This is an educational course for family, caregivers and friends of individuals with a mental illness. NAMI Wood County is continuing online support groups as well including Family Support Group, NAMI Connections, Parent & Caregiver, and others. Visit www.namiwodocounty.org for more information and to register for programming. Email info@namiwoodcounty.org or call 419-352-0626 for more information.
BGSU:
Now publishing a situation report once/week. Falcon Outfitters is reopening tomorrow and will be having a reopening sale. As we prepare for our re-entry to campus in the coming weeks, we must continue to assess our policies and take actions that will keep our campus community safe. The university has extended its previous travel restrictions to suspend all BGSU-supported domestic and international travel for faculty and staff until Dec. 31, 2020. Only approved, essential business travel will be permitted. Faculty and staff will need to fill out the Request Essential Travel form, which can be found on our BGSU Travel Restrictions webpage , along with more details about travel policies for faculty and staff.
The university continues to strongly encourage all faculty, staff and students to avoid out-of-state and international travel. Those who do travel are personally responsible for complying with any travel or public health restrictions imposed by the destinations to which they are traveling, as well as any requirements imposed by the state of Ohio upon the traveler’s return. This would include the 14-day advised self-quarantine for travel to states reporting COVID-19 positive testing rates 15 percent or higher, as part of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s travel advisory. This list is updated weekly by the Ohio Department of Health. As we prepare to welcome students, faculty and staff back to campus, individuals arriving to our area from states on this list are asked to quarantine for 14 days before returning to work, class or other on-campus activities.
Our return to campus plan involves taking personal responsibility not only for your own well-being, but the health and safety of our entire campus community. The following safety protocols are at the center of this commitment to self-care and community, and will remain in effect until further notice. https://www.bgsu.edu/coronavirus/return-to-campus/before-arriving-on-campus.html
Fall semester classes will now start on Wednesday, Aug. 26.
https://www.bgsu.edu/coronavirus/return-to-campus.html?deliveryName=DM7669 To best plan and to lessen the impact COVID-19 may have on our campuses, in-person classes will end on Wednesday, Nov. 25. The last week of classes will be Nov. 30-Dec. 4, 2020, and will be conducted remotely. Final exam week will be Dec. 7-11, 2020, and will also be conducted remotely. In addition, to provide maximized flexibility, we have also canceled Winter Session in 2021. Based upon current planning, classes for spring semester will now begin on Jan. 11, 2021, and end on April 30, 2021.
Local:
Martha’s Kitchen Drive-Thru Community Dinner will be held Friday, Aug. 21, from 5-6 p.m. (or until food runs out) BG Alliance Church 1161 Napoleon Road, featuring hamburgers, hotdogs, mac-n-cheese, watermelon and cookies.
The Wood County Commissioners have approved the use of up to $250,000 of federal CARES Act funds for the Wood County Small Business Relief Program. The new program will provide eligible small businesses with up to $5000 to cover business interruption expenses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. For details go to our website at www.bgchamber.net/coronavirus/ . Business owners can obtain application materials from the Wood County Office of Economic Development’s website at https://bit.ly/30nwF90 .
