DeWine: Marion corrections officer among latest COVID-19 victims

COLUMBUS — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine led a Wednesday briefing on the state's coronavirus response with news that a corrections officer from Ohio's Marion Correctional Institution has died from COVID-19.

John Dawson, 55, of Mansfield, was a more than 20-year employee of the state prison. He tested positive March 30 and was known to have underlying health conditions.

At the time, Dawson had been delivering equipment to other prison employees, DeWine said.

So far, 48 workers and 17 inmates at seven Ohio prisons have tested positive for the virus, the governor said. He added the state is "aggressively" testing for the virus across its prison system.

In response to a question about nursing home assistance in counties like Mahoning, which has the highest number of deaths in the state — 43 percent of which were in long-term care facilities, local officials said Wednesday — Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton reiterated Wednesday that nursing homes and other congregate settings in the state are the most at-risk for an outbreak of the virus, adding that Ohio nursing homes are "struggling" with a shortage of personal protective equipment.

She urged nursing home operators that are struggling to contain the spread of the virus to reach out to their local health department for help with identifying resources. ODH and Ohio Department of Medicaid-led teams have been visiting the hardest-hit facilities to advise on patient movement and ensuring all nursing homes are following consistent virus management guidelines, she said.

Acton said she feels nursing homes in Ohio "have been open" about surging cases inside their facilities and that local health departments should be reporting those "hotspots" to residents.

In other developments from the update, Kimberly Hall, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, said the department's top priority is managing and responding to an overwhelming surge of "hundreds of thousands" of new unemployment claims filed in the state since March 15.

So far, the state has paid out about $124 million to 195,000 Ohioans who are out of work due to the pandemic.

The department's call center is hiring more phone workers and bolstering technological capacity. Its call center is now operating around the clock and is expected to employ more than 1,000 people by the end of the week, Hall said.

The department is also working to expand services for the self-employed and other groups who previously we ineligible for unemployment, but for whom the federal government has since expanded coverage due to COVID-19.

This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 2:55 PM with the headline "DeWine: Marion corrections officer among latest COVID-19 victims."