Coronavirus: New state health director backs out, citing personal reasons, DeWine announces

UPDATE @ 9:35 p.m.: “Dr. Joan Duwve tonight withdrew her name from consideration for director of the Ohio Department of Health, citing personal reasons,” Gov. Mike DeWine said in via twitter.

DeWine’s administration will continue its search for a full-time director of the health department.

EARLIER REPORT

Thursday afternoon, DeWine offered his report on the state’s response to coronavirus.

The following announcements have been made:

• Gov. Mike DeWine urged Ohioans to get vaccinated against the flu, as he and health officials are worried about those that could get the flu and coronavirus at the same time. “I cannot stress enough how critically important it is this year. If you don’t have a primary healthcare provider and don’t know where to get a vaccine, visit http://VaccineFinder.org.”
• Ohio Association of Foodbanks is recruiting 25 full-time AmeriCorps VISTA national service members as part of a new program to respond to COVID-19′s impact on food security. Ohio is one of 4 states participating in this pilot, according to DeWine.
• DeWine also discussed the latest travel advisory, which was released on Wednesday.
• Montgomery County has seen a decline in total coronavirus cases this week and that has been as a result of the lower case count at the University of Dayton, however the county remains in the Red Level 3 advisory category.
• Preble County, DeWine said, is heading in the right direction as they have seen a decrease in cases in the county. DeWine said if the trend continues he expects Preble would drop from this week’s Red Level 3 advisory to Orange Level 2 next week.
• An update to the top 10 counties with the highest occurrence of coronavirus per 100,000 residents was released and 6 of the 10 counties are from the Miami Valley: Butler (2), Mercer (3), Shelby (4), Montgomery (5), Auglaize (6) and Darke (10).
• Wittenberg University in Springfield has 76 active cases, many of which have been linked back to out-of-class social gatherings.
• Wittenberg paused its in-person classes this week for two weeks and had a testing event to help trace the severity of spread on campus.
• Dr. Joan Duwve has agreed to serve as the Director of the Ohio Department of Health. She is a native Ohioan and a medical doctor with extensive experience in Public Health. She’s expected to begin around Oct. 1.
• DeWine said “it makes sense” for Ohio State to want to have a Big Ten football season. He said the university has a good argument for the school to go forward with a season, because of the ability to test student athletes for coronavirus. DeWine said he spoke to Ohio State’s Athletic Director Gene Smith today about the possibility of a season.

Things you need to know today, Thursday:

• WHIO wants to have the hard, real conversations in a series of stories that will hopefully lead our community toward change. Today, “Dayton Gets Real” about the disproportionate way COVID-19 has impacted communities of color, particularly African Americans.
• County inspects 40 businesses over Labor Day weekend for coronavirus-related violations
• Wittenberg awaits mass testing results after temporarily moving classes online
• Miami U. moves forward with plan to resume in-person, hybrid classes
• Fairborn, West Carrollton postpone varsity football games for 2 weeks
• Majority of UD students diagnosed with COVID-19 report mild symptoms
• DeWine On Internet Rumor: “It’s Just Garbage”
• Variance in state sports order on spectators means Honda Indy 200 will be run at Mid-Ohio
• The U.S. Air Force is alerting its employees, both military and civilian, that they will not be able to opt-out of the deferral for the payroll tax that was established through President Donald Trump’s executive order that went into effect last week.

LATEST STATE DATA: As of Thursday afternoon, there have been at least 134,086 confirmed or probable cases in the state, 4,354 deaths, and 14,164 hospitalizations, according to the Ohio Department of Health. 112,140 people are presumed to have recovered from the virus in the state.

Of the state’s cases, 17,592 are presumed to still be active.

Ohio has an estimated population of approximately 11.7 million, census records show.

[ Local cases, deaths reported to Ohio Department of Health ]

There have been 2,483,371 people tested for the coronavirus in Ohio, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

A total of 14,591 health care workers have tested positive which is about 11 percent of the cases.

Cox Media Group