COLUMBUS — Gov. Mike DeWine held an afternoon COVID-19 briefing, featuring many nurses talking about the current situation in hospitals and nursing homes.
It was DeWine’s first briefing since several counties in the state, including Montgomery County, moved to the Public Health Advisory System’s highest alert level last Wednesday.
>> Coronavirus: Montgomery County goes to Purple Level 4, Warren County on Level 4 watch list
The following announcements have been made:
- Pfizer could be ready on December 15 and Moderna on December 22, waiting approval from the FDA
- On Thursday’s press conference DeWine will announce full rollout plan for the vaccines
- Dayton correctional officer died of COVID-19 this morning
- Ohio crossed 5,000 inpatients w/ COVID-19 in Ohio’s hospitals for the first time. On Nov. 1 there were just under 1,700 coronavirus patients in Ohio hospitals.
- Dr. Andy Thomas said rural area hospital are being hit the hardest.
- A 1/3 of the patients across the state are COVID patients - 1 in 3 patients on a ventilator are COVID patients
- Dr. Thomas: If you travelled or went outside their bubble during the holiday weekend, make sure they are being safe now including quarantining at home and minimizing your contact with the community.
- Darke County is the county at the highest occurrence of cases in the state
- DeWine created a new program to help improve indoor air quality and reduce the transmission of COVID-19 for residents in nursing homes, assisted living centers, and adult day centers.
- Eligible recipients can receive up to $15,000 to address indoor air quality through HVAC inspections, portable air filtration systems, new filtration systems, maintenance on current systems, and other interventions.
- DeWine asked companies to have employees work remote across the state
- For state employees, Ohio initially planned to have employees begin to return to work in early January, but are now putting a hold on that.
- Jamie Giere, a nurse and team leader for the COVID Unit at Premier Health’s Upper Valley Medical Center in Troy, north of Dayton spoke about the stress her nurses and patients are going through. “I wish I could wear a go-pro for a few hours of the day for people to realize the stress that healthcare workers go through every day. It’s exhausting. It’s emotional. I don’t think the public truly understands what we go through. Seeing the fear in patients’ faces.”
- Gov. DeWine to speak about the possibility of a stimulus bill later this week