Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced changes to the Ohio Department of Health executive leadership team by appointing a new Health Director, Chief Medical Officer, and other positions.
>>RELATED: DeWine appoints new health director, chief medical officer <<
Stephanie McCloud, the previous director of the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation was appointed by DeWine Thursday as the state’s Health Director, he announced in his briefing Thursday.
“She has the experience necessary to lead ODH as it carries out its important health functions while also battling the pandemic,” DeWine said.
Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff accepted the position as Chief Medical Officer, whose job will be to report directly to the governor about the latest information in the pandemic and work to find solutions from across the county.
Vanderhoff had served a decade as a Senior Vice President and as the Chief Medical Officer at Ohio Health, prior to accepting the ODH position.
Lance Himes, who served as Interim Health Director after the departure of Dr. Amy Acton, will remain with the ODH as the Senior Deputy.
“(Himes) will lead the coordination of work to get a vaccine out to our citizens and will continue to work directly with Ohio’s local health commissioners,” DeWine said.
Stephanie McCloud is our new @OHDeptofHealth Director. I previously appointed her as the Director of @OhioBWC where she has done a phenomenal job. She has the experience necessary to lead ODH as it carries out its important health functions while also battling the pandemic. pic.twitter.com/M6qG8Do0I8
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) November 5, 2020
The state reported a new record for COVID-19 cases in a day with 4,961 new cases reported Thursday.
“We have a shockingly high number of cases in the past 24 hours," DeWine said during the briefing.
>>RELATED: Coronavirus: 10 Miami Valley counties now at Level 3 Red level
Two additional counties, Champaign and Clinton were moved into the state’s Level 3 alert level, bringing the total number of Miami Valley counties in the “red” level up to 10.
DeWine said 86 percent of the state’s population currently lives in a red county and every county in the state is currently listed as a high incidence county.
Our updated Advisory System Map shows that the virus continues to spread throughout all regions of Ohio. We now have 56 Red Alert Level 3 counties—the highest number of counties that are red since we started the alert system. pic.twitter.com/z9LaBeGjTu
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) November 5, 2020
The state is also reporting a increases in hospitalizations and patients in intensive care units. As of Thursday, 541 people are in ICUs, which is now the highest since the pandemic started, DeWine said.
We continue to see increases in #COVID19 patients hospitalized, in the ICU, and on ventilators. There are 2,075 current patients today which is a 55% increase in hospitalized patients compared to two weeks ago. There are 541 people in ICU. The previous high was 533 in April. pic.twitter.com/TMr3qwgp58
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) November 5, 2020
Data released by DeWine Thursday showed that while Ohio continues to increase the amount of testing in the state, cases are still increasing at a higher rate than the testing. As of Thursday, cases have increase 280 percent since Sept. 24, while testing capacity only increased 44 percent, DeWine said.
This chart shows that Ohio's case data has increased at a much higher rate than our testing. Since September 24th total number of tests has increased about 44%. Compare that with our case data, which increased 280% during the same period. pic.twitter.com/KZeI1tlCcU
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) November 5, 2020
Other items to know today in the coronavirus pandemic:
- Coronavirus: Miami Valley Hospital enrolling patients for experimental antibody treatment
- CBC in critical need of type O positive blood
- Nursing homes permitted to allow indoor visitations starting Monday in Ohio
- Carroll HS moves to remote learning after increase in COVID-19 cases
Latest data reported by Ohio Department of Heath:
As of Thursday afternoon, there have been at least 235,170 confirmed or probable cases in the state, 5,461 deaths, and 20,015 hospitalizations, according to the Ohio Department of Health. 178,646 people are presumed to have recovered from the virus in the state.
>>Local cases, deaths, presumed recovered reported to Ohio Department of Health
Ohio has an estimated population of approximately 11.7 million, census records show.
There have been 4,682,517 people tested for the coronavirus in Ohio, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
A total of 22,375 health care workers have tested positive which is about 10 percent of the cases.
Cox Media Group
