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DeWine: Higher COVID Cases Impacting Hospitals

OHIO — An increase in COVID cases in the Miami Valley and across the state has led to more people being hospitalized, creating concern by hospital administrators about capacity and personnel to care for the surge of patients.

In a briefing Monday, Gov. Mike DeWine said there were 154 people placed in the hospital with COVID in just the last 24 hours. The overall total currently in the hospital has now reached 2,500. That is up from 2,000 last Thursday.

Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Medical Director of the Ohio Department of Health said at the beginning of the health emergency back in March the state was more focused on the availability of protective gear for doctors, nurses and other hospital workers.  Now the concern has shifted to the physical capacity for the increased patient population and having enough staff to care for them.

“If we don’t see a shift in the way things are going, meaning if we don’t control the spread of the virus and the case numbers, we won’t be able to continue caring for the acutely ill without postponing important but less urgent care. And we anticipate that this kind of shift could happen quickly if trends do not change,” Vanderhoff said.

While Vanderhoff pointed to weddings and funerals as a source of new cases, he said he will not be recommending that the governor add new restrictions to reduce the number of allowable participants in those gatherings. DeWine was not available for questions during Monday’s briefings. He has hinted that more restrictions might be coming at some point in the future if new cases continue to rise. He may discuss the issue at his briefing scheduled for Tuesday.

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