COLUMBUS, Ohio — “Within about two weeks —and we’re continuing to see it go up — but within about two weeks, it’s going to kick in much harder, and we’re going to really start getting hit very hard in our hospitals and our hospital admissions,” said Governor Mike DeWine.
Governor Mike DeWine says despite our best efforts, when the peak infections hit —which could mean 8,000 new cases a day —we’re going to need two to three times more hospital beds than the state currently has.
- Peak infection is expected around mid-May
- 6,000-8,000 new cases expected daily
- Dr. Amy Acton says coronavirus has changed Ohio in just a few weeks
“They project that we may not hit the peak now until mid-May,” said DeWine.
He says local health departments are now working fast to get ahead of the surge of this virus, which has changed the landscape of Ohio in just a few weeks.
“The other night I was thinking back as the governor mentioned, the Arnold Classic, and again, how absolutely hard these decisions were to make at the time, and now we’re talking about that same convention center being used to house hospital patients,” said Acton.
Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) says he’s doing his best to assist from Washington — with the newly signed federal stimulus bill
“Our local health departments are on the front lines here, and they need more help and they need more help not just to help with the testing along with our hospitals and other health care providers, but also to be able to get the data to be able to track this virus. In the phase one part of the bill, we had some money going directly to the states. In this bill we have 1.5 billion dollars going directly to the states, so Ohio will get its share.”
As part of the bill, many Ohioans will see money in their pockets.
“If you are an individual and you have reported to the IRS either in 2018, or if you’ve already filed in 2019, and you have less than 75 thousand dollars a year, you will receive a check of 1,200 dollars, one-time direct payment,” Portman said.
He says those checks are expected to be sent out sometime next week.
Here in Ohio, on Friday DeWine signed a state stimulus bill, which, among other things, changes the tax deadline to July 15 and moves back our election deadline.
“The bill that the governor just signed establishes a vote count day for April the 28th. And so, if you would like to cast an absentee ballot, you can do that at voteohio.gov,” said Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted.