FLU-RELATED CASES SPIKE
Ohio hospitalizations hit new high for 2019-20 season.
Nearly 1,000 Ohioans spent time in the hospital last week with flu-related symptoms, the highest recorded this flu season.
The 994 hospitalizations from Feb. 2-8 marks a new high for the 2019-2020 flu season and a 19% increase over the previous week, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
These numbers bring to 5,457 the total hospitalizations since the season began at the end of September, and are more than double the hospitalizations reported during the same week of last year’s flu season.
This includes 533 Montgomery County flu-related hospital stays from Oct. 1 through Feb. 8.
“One in 12 Americans is likely to get sick from flu this season,” said Ohio Department of Health Medical Director Dr. Mark Hurst,. “The next person hospitalized could be you, your child, or another loved one. Protect yourself and everyone around you by getting a flu shot and following other precautions.”
Two Ohio children, girls ages 11 and 16, have died from the flu this season. Adult deaths are not
ings and find an additional $15 million to $20 million in savings this coming fiscal year, which begins July 1, Horner added.
UD is not in crisis, he said. The university enjoys record enrollment, having welcomed more than 2,000 first-year students this past August, with total enrollment at 11,474 students and undergraduate enrollment at 8,046, according to figures the university offered Friday.
“But we are now at a point where we are having to make some decisions that help us to continue to sustain what we want to do,” Horner said. “And we’re doing it from a position of strength — we’re doing it now (when) we are still having operating margins and preserving those operating margins.”
“We’re not losing sleep (over the challenges), but we are highly focused on ensuring that we stay where we want to,” he added.
“The overall quality and wealth of UD never been higher,” UD said in its response to the Dayton Daily News. “Our enrollment and our endowment are at record highs and, unlike many schools, we have been running a positive operating margin for many years.”
In January, UD President Eric Spina announced he was creating a committee and four working groups to craft recommendations on how to cut expenses and grow revenue.
“Our strategy moving forward cannot be about doing more with less or the same with less,” Spina said last month. “Rather, it should be about sharpening our priorities and focus, which could include doing less in some instances or becoming smaller in some areas.”
And while UD says it is enjoying record enrollment, “net revenue from tuition” is an issue being watched.
More students are graduating in four years, the university said. That means revenue UD previously received from fifth- and sixth-year students has declined. And international enrollment is down, as it is for other U.S. colleges and universities, the university said.
From an academic and student-debt perspective, an accelerating graduation rate is a good thing, Horner said. But less revenue from students in later years of enrollment has to be faced.
“There is a revenue impact we to have absorb,” Horner said.
He said UD’s balance sheet is “about as strong as it has ever been,” with endowment at “all-time level” and some debt being recently retired.
“We’re talking about expense reductions,” Horner said. “But what we’re trying to do is ensure we have resources to continue to invest.”