The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
DeWine: Economy open, masks on
DeWine urges mask use, cooperation with contact tracers during visit
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he speaks with county health departments every Monday. He said they’re saying “pretty much the same thing.
“The spread (of the novel coronavirus) is not so much in workplaces, not so much in classrooms... but it’s when people are doing more casual things, getting together (with friends and family),” DeWine said.
It’s in informal settings when people are letting their guard down, the governor said. “It’s human nature, I think.”
“I’m here to tell you we don’t have to shut our economy down. Wecando two things at once. It’s not that people have to dramatically change what they’re doing, we have to change howwe do things....” —Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine
DeWine was speaking Oct. 19 to a group of reporters gathered in an airplane terminal at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland.
DeWine said over the past few days he’s been making stops across the state as Ohio has seen a spike of new cases in recent weeks.
“In about two and a half weeks, we’ve doubled the number of cases from 1,000 (cases per day) in Ohio to 2,000,” he said. “At the same time we’ve seen positivity rate almost double. We were down to about 2.5 percent and now pushing on a daily average of close to five percent.”
DeWine again urged people to wear masks.
“We’ve really learned the value of the masks,” he said. “These masks, when people are wearing them, have a great ability to cut the spread down.”
Though Ohio has seen an increase in COVID-19 cases, DeWine said the state’s economy does not need to be shut down.
“I’m here to tell you we don’t have to shut our economy down,” he said. “We can do two things at once. It’s not that people have to dramatically change what they’re doing, we have to change how we do things.
We have to set what our priorities are. Keeping jobs, expanding jobs, keeping kids in school, this is what our priorities are. If enough of us wear masks, we can get this done.”
DeWine said “citizens control what the next three months will look like.”
“It’s not going to be easy,” he said. “We’ve known all along when it got cold, when winter came, late fall, this is going to be tough. But I will tell you, knowing that, I was surprised at the rate of the increase. One of the things that should cause us concern is that unlike the summer, when we saw the cases mostly be among young people, we’re seeing the age go up.”
He said another difference between nowand summer is we’re seeing hospitalizations go up at a faster rate.
“I’m assuming that that’s because we’re now talking about an older group,” he said.
DeWine also urged cooperation with contact tracers. He said the health departments across the state are “doing a really good job, but they need help.
“So when a health department contacts you, please help them,” he said. “All they’re trying to do is shut this virus off. This virus can only spread by our help.”
He said that sometimes health departments have seen some resistance from people contacted by the tracers.
“Sometimes people are reluctant,” DeWine said. “Sometimes you have parents that get all concerned that their child is going to be out of school, their child is not going to be able to play sports. And I understand all that. As a parent, a grandparent I get all that, but we’re all in this together and that cooperation is very important. Most people are cooperating well.”
As of 2 p.m. Oct. 19,
Ohio has 183,624 total COVID-19 cases and 5,075 total deaths, according to the Ohio Department of Health. The state has also seen 17,712 total COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to
ODH. Of the total cases, the state presumes that 151,037 people have recovered. ODH defines presumed recovery as cases with a symptom onset date greater than 21 days who are not deceased.
“We can fight this,” DeWine said. “We have a common enemy. The enemy is the virus. We can keep this virus down, but we’ve all just got to pull together.”