(Following is the Wood County EMA report from Gov. Mike DeWine’s press conference this afternoon.)
Wood County remains at a Level 3-Red rating in the Ohio Public Health Advisory System – meaning mandatory masks will continue for at least another week.
(https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/static/publicorders/Addendum-Facial-Coverings.pdf)
This means that face coverings are required, when people are:
- In any indoor location that is not a residence.
- Outdoors and unable to consistently maintain a distance of 6 feet or more from individuals who are not a member of their household.
- Waiting for, riding, driving, or operating public transportation, a taxi, private care service, or a ride sharing vehicle within the county.
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 cities of Bowling Green, Toledo, Dayton, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus have now mandated facial coverings when in public.
The color coded Public Health Advisory system ratings are based on a group of metrics, when you look at the trajectory you see a trend that provides an early warning related to looking forward.
These levels tell us where the virus is going in our community so we can take steps to address this. This is meant to be an early warning. Five of the seven are leading indicators. First and most important is new cases per capita. Normalizing the number of new cases based on the population size of the area. This is the total number of cases over the past two weeks and then looks at the rate per 100,000 citizens.
Three others deal with looking at trends or worsening data over a five-day period. Two of those relate to symptoms patients describe when seeking medical care. Other metric is a leading indicator- looking at sustained increase in new cases. This is normalizing the trend based on that county’s previous history.
Congregate settings – If greater than 50% of the cases were in congregate settings, this indicator does not flag. This demonstrates community spread if flagged. The two lagging indicators are hospitalization based. One is the rate of new hospitalizations by county of residence for the patient. The other is hospital capacity – how many ICU beds are filled in an entire region. If more than 80% of the ICU beds are occupied then this will flag. These beds do not need to be occupied by COVID patients to count.
Gov. Mike DeWine today released the latest public health advisory system map, which now has 18 counties at level 3, the red level, which is up from 12 last week. No counties were upgraded to level 4, or purple. As far as the starred watch list, the counties from last week are no longer starred, but remain at level 3, however Athens county has been elevated to the watch list. Hamilton- Remains red. Number may be leveling off. Cases in the county remains high. Outbreak noted at a high school. On the upside- more people are wearing masks and the business community is coming together. Athens- situation rapidly accelerated. More COVID cases in the last 2 weeks then they have had the entire time of the pandemic. Outbreaks noted at 3 local bars. Allen- large surge, 76 cases over the last 2 weeks. This is not just from increased testing. Local officials isolated outbreaks restaurants and workplaces. Delaware- surge of 233 cases in the last 2 weeks. This is more than the entire country of Ireland over the same period of time. Number of travelers in Delaware County contracted virus while in Florida. Licking- surge of 159 cases in the last 2 weeks. Some cases from long-term care facilities, however, 75% of cases have come from outside of congregate settings.
Small outbreak noted at a house of worship. Lucas- 393 cases last 2 weeks. Avg number of cases has quadrupled in the last few weeks. Outbreaks noted at a LTC facility and from a recent funeral.
Richland- case average doubled over the last few weeks. Outbreaks noted at a restaurant and birthday party. Scioto- outbreak noted at a daycare center and general community spread. Union also affected.
Butler County off the watch list, cases are still increasing but at a slightly lower rate. Clairmont- concerning spread continues. Cuyahoga- still at a critical stage. Outpatient visits have tripled in the last three weeks. Some cases driven by out of town travel and recreational activities. At 6 p.m. tomorrow, all red counties are under the mandatory mask order. This means that 60% of the population of the state of Ohio will be living under a mask order.
DeWine gave Walmart and Kroger shout out for requiring masks. Masks do make a difference. He stated he is cautiously optimistic. The Ohio Investigative Unit (OIU) team will continue to do their work focusing on bars – social distancing, mask wearing. Health departments are to pinpoint those places of concern and the OIU now to assist in enforcement.
“The most important players in this game are the people of Ohio, you control where this is going so much more than I do,” DeWine said.
Lt Gov. Jon Husted spoke about the connection between health and our economy. One of the contributing factors that led to the shutdown of many of the things is the fact that we did not have an adequate supply of PPE, testing, and things that were essential for public health and hospitals. We do not want to find ourselves in this position again. We want to sustain the production of PPE within our state.
A $20 million grant is available for manufacturers to help with PPE production, with 68 companies receiving these grants up to $500,000 to retool or expand existing facilities. This is important for economic development. A total of 65 million pieces of PPE have been purchased, 50 million pieces have been distributed. Jobs Ohio next week will put together kits to distribute so we are using them in the communities for small business.
According to the governor’s message from last night, Goldman Sachs research, expanding masking could prevent having to bring back shutdowns and a reduction in the GDP. All of these things are connected.
Ohio Confirmed Cases: 66,540
Ohio Probable Cases: 4,061
Ohio Total Confirmed plus Probable: 70,601
Ohio Hospitalizations: 9,324
ICU Admissions: 2,280
Ohio Confirmed COVID Deaths: 2,849
Ohio Probable COVID Deaths: 254
*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 thedate you are looking for and hover your mouse over that bar.
Wood County Cases (total plus probable): 532
Wood County Hospitalizations: 76
Wood County Deaths: 53
Wood County Active Cases: 46
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 this morning, over the past 24 hours, the Ohio Department of Health reported 1,316 (69,311 total) new cases, 160 (9,209) hospitalizations, and 36 (2,259) ICU Admissions were above their respective 21-day averages. Six (3,075) deaths was below the 21- day average. In the last 24 hours, no new hot spots have been identified by ODH.
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.
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, or 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.
Public Health:
There are 66,540 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ohio. There have been 532 cases (total confirmed plus probable) in Wood County, presently 46 active cases, 76 of those are or have been hospitalized, 53 deaths.
A list of testing options is available at https://bit.ly/38EME56 .
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.
We’ve heard a few reports that labs are getting backed up again and it’s taking as long as 10 days for results to come in.
ODH antibody coronavirus study and postcards: They are working toward implementation of the study and will be in the field collecting biological samples starting July 9, in the Central region. After that, we will be moving through the state in the order below. The first round of postcard mailings were sent in the mail. Individuals working in the field will be in bright yellow t-shirts with the ODH logo. This is a legitimate campaign.
The study will reach Northwest Ohio from July 25-28.
Wood County Health Commissioner Ben Batey has been appointed as Bowling Green State University chief health officer. Batey, who will continue focusing on the public health of Wood County through this growing partnership, will begin his cabinet-level appointment as chief health officer at BGSU on July 27.
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:
For agency resource requests, please contact us at: woodcountyema@co.wood.oh.us .
Many of the long term care facilities have been paired with Wood County Hospital as their primary source of PPE requests. If there are any questions about this and your facility please reach out to our office.
Law Enforcement/EMS
The National Police Foundation, with support from The Starbucks Foundation and The Motorola Solutions Foundation, is pleased to announce the National First Responder COVID-19 Grant Relief Program. This program will allow first responders and survivors of first responders in underserved communities an opportunity to request a grant to reimburse select COVID-19 related expenses, such as mental health and wellness costs, (i.e. counseling services, suicide prevention), unanticipated dependent care, disinfecting services, and similar costs. These micro-grants may be awarded in an amount up to $1,000. First responders or family members interested in applying for a grant can review eligibility and apply here: https://www.policefoundation.org/national-first-responder-covid-19-grant-relief-program/
Applications can be submitted beginning on July 15,. Please direct program specific questions to Mary Kate Murphy, Project Coordinator at mkmurphy@policefoundation.org or 202.833.1460 Ext.088.
Bowling Green Police Division has taken two complaints from businesses in Bowling Green that received scam phone calls from a male subject. The male spoke with a southern accent and claimed to be conducting a counterfeit money investigation at the business and needed the employees help. The male also claims he is working with local law enforcement and requests the employee turn over the money from the store to him as part of the investigation. Neither business fell for the scam, but the police want other businesses to be aware in case they get similar calls, BGPD Lt. Dan Mancuso said this morning. Anyone having any information related to these incidents is encouraged to contact the Bowling Green Police Division at 419-352-1131 or Wood County CrimeStoppers at 1-800-54-CRIME.
BGSU:
Now publishing a situation report once/week.
In a two-part virtual town hall series for faculty and staff, BGSU leadership shared additional details about the university’s plans and response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including academics, research and creative activities, class and instructional delivery modes, health and safety protocols, facilities, and diversity and belonging efforts in a COVID-19 world.
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:
The Cocoon is in need of gas and grocery gift cards in increments of $10. These gift cards are used by survivors to purchase basic care needs and put gas in their cars to get to critical appointments. If you are able to donate, please mail gift cards to The Cocoon, PO Box 1165, Bowling Green, OH 43402. Or, call 419-373-1730, ext. 1002 to make alternate arrangements. Our office is not open to visitors and appointments must be made to drop off donations.
The Bowling Green City Schools Board of Education will hold a special meeting on Thursday at 6 p.m. Board members will meet remotely, with the public invited to watch via YouTube: https://youtu.be/vQsQ_Rooz00 . The purpose of the meeting is for the board to continue the discussion for the 2020-21 school opening plans for students/staff and other items that may arise.
Northwood: free breakfast and lunch available for youth up to age 18. This is happening every Monday and Wednesday through July 31. Service will be drive through only. Delivery time is 11-11:45 a.m. Location: Northwood High School, 600 Lemoyne Road Northwood, and Brentwood Shelter House, 300 Brentwood Drive, Northwood. No need to RSVP.
The Wood County Historical Center & Museum is emerging from quarantine with a new name and logo – the Wood County Museum. The shorter name was adopted because of the ever-changing communication needs and technology, according to a news release. Today, most people get their information on small screens, such as smartphones and tablets, where simplicity is important for clarity and readability. The new logo will be easier to identify the museum on these smaller screens as we usher in a new era.
