COLUMBUS – As the number of coronavirus cases in Ohio crosses the 1,000 barrier and continues its steady rise, Gov. Mike DeWine says the state could see ten times that number of new cases every day when the wave crests in May.
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He said the state must double or triple the amount of hospital space available for patients who need intensive-care to absorb as many as 10,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day, as projected by analysts at the Cleveland Clinic.
Here is the curve from @OhioState: Yellow is unmitigated. But, at the peak of the mitigated (blue) curve we are now projecting 10,000 new cases in #Ohio a day. pic.twitter.com/EHPIZVAYCt
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) March 27, 2020
Health director Dr. Amy Acton predicts that 9 percent 11 percent of the hospitalized patients will need to be housed in ICUs.
“This is a worst nightmare of a disease,” she said during DeWine’s daily Statehouse news briefing Friday.
Along with the dramatic increase in space and equipment, the state will require many more doctors, nurses and technicians to care for the patients and run the machines.
Acton says the state may call on retired doctors, specialists whose services are in low demand, nursing and medical students, and hospital personnel redeployed from other departments to keep up with staffing needs.
DeWine on Friday signed a bill allowing recent nursing graduates to obtain a temporary license to practice prior to passing the licensure examination.
The new projections was higher than the 6,000 to 8,000 new cases a day Acton predicted just a day earlier, but she said Thursday that early modeling shows Ohio is on track to cut the impact on the state’s health care system by 50% or more.
Again on Friday, she and DeWine called on Ohioians to remain committed to social distancing and staying home.
DeWine says hospitals have been grouped into eight separate regions and he has called on the eight groups to provide plans for dealing with the surge of cases by Monday.
Acton and Adjutant General Maj. Gen. John Harris, who commands the Ohio National Guard, have been tasked with impementing the plans, which are intended to ensure that patients are quickly transferred to the nearest appropriate medical facility.
UPDATE: The state reported 1,406 cases of the COVID-19 virus Friday and 25 Ohioans had died from the disease. According to local and county health departments, 288 of the cases and two of the deaths were in central Ohio.
Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin announced Friday that a deputy assigned to the Franklin County Correctional Center II on Jackson Pike tested positive for the virus Baldwin says the deputy last work at the jail on March 23.
As hospitals nationwide search for supplies, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said that the federal Food and Drug Administration was ready to approve a machine developed at Battelle Memorial Institute he said could sterilize as many as 160,000 surgical masks per day.