With record hospitalizations in Ohio, DeWine deploys Guard, pleads for masks in schools

On Wednesday, the day Ohio reported a new all-time record for COVID-19 cases in a single day, Gov. Mike DeWine said an additional 1,250 Ohio National Guard members will be deployed to hospitals statewide.

They will support the original deployment of 1,050 Guard members sent to hospitals Dec 17.

DeWine said in Wednesday’s news conference the omicron surge has created a need for additional support to prevent hospital staff burnout and maintain patient care.

He also again took aim at the unvaccinated.

“What we’re seeing in our hospitals filling up [and] in our emergency rooms is being driven by people in Ohio who are not vaccinated, and the numbers clearly show that,” the governor said. “If you’re vaccinated, the chances of you ending up in a hospital are pretty darn slim.”

The Ohio Department of Health on Wednesday reported a new all-time record of 20,320 new COVID-19 cases in a single day. That includes 877 new cases in the Mahoning Valley, also the highest single-day total ever: 466 new cases in Mahoning County (for a total of 40,477), 251 in Trumbull (31,362) and 160 in Columbiana (18,811).

As of Wednesday, 5,356 people were hospitalized for COVID-19, according to the Ohio Hospital Association, meaning one in four Ohio patients are COVID-positive.

This surpasses the previous hospitalizations record of 5,308 on Dec. 15, 2020, according to the governor’s office. Of Wednesday’s hospitalizations, 1,228 patients are in the ICU, which is approaching the record high of 1,318 ICU patients reported on Dec. 15, 2020.

The average seven-day rate of positive coronavirus tests in Ohio continued climbing Wednesday to 25.8% — the highest it’s been since the pandemic began. Before the recent surge of new cases, the state’s previous all-time high was 23.6% on April 20, 2020, amid COVID-19’s first wave.

Monday’s positivity rate is nearly 20 times higher than the all-time low of 1.3 percent reported in late June.

There were 592 new COVID-19 hospitalizations and 64 new ICU admissions reported statewide in the past 24 hours, Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Ohio Department of Health director, told reporters Wednesday.

Northern Ohio has been particularly hard hit. In the greater Cleveland area, one in three patients are COVID-positive, including ICU patients, according to Ohio Hospital Association data.

“The hospital systems are under significant stress in Northern Ohio,” said Dr. Robert Wyllie, chief medical operations officer at the Cleveland Clinic. “We are running 2,000 tests a day. Let me tell you about those tests: 36% of the people going into the Walker Center for testing are testing positive for COVID.”

More than 460 additional guard members will be deployed to Cleveland, 160 to Toledo and 100 to Columbus, DeWine said.

A nurse’s passionate plea

During the governor’s news conference, Jennifer Hollis, a critical care nurse at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, spoke passionately about her experiences, asking Ohioans “to walk a mile in my shoes.

“It is beyond difficult,” Hollis said. “Our beds are full. There is nowhere else to go, and we are just as short-staffed as everyone else is seeing as well … We are tired, we are frustrated and we want the best for all of our patients.”

Hollis said she is usually stretched thin with a “flex assignment,” along with other nurses sitting next to her.

“What a day looks like as we’re coming in is the constant beeping of ventilators and IV pumps. … Wondering where is that beeping coming from and we are rushing and praying it’s not a life-saving medication that is beeping because I might be caught up in an isolation room,” she said.

Hollis said her biggest fear is missing something because “we are so maxed.” She urged Ohioans to get vaccinated to protect themselves, their loved ones and their communities.

“I’ll continue to fight for you, when you won’t fight for yourself. Please get vaccinated. Quarantine if you are symptomatic. Get tested,” she said.

New call for school masking

The Ohio Hospital Association distributed a letter to Ohio school superintendents, administrators and school board members recommending they implement a masking requirement as students return next week from holiday break.

A masking requirement in schools will help limit community spread of COVID-19 and keep students in school, according to the letter.

This time around, children will be the most vulnerable “as the omicron variant grows,” Vanderhoff said.

“With that, it means you have more people who are at risk for potentially developing severe illness,” he said. “It is the unvaccinated, including unvaccinated children, who then become at risk,” he said.

DeWine said the state “does not have the practical ability to mandate masks, and schools need to do what they’re supposed to do and have masks [on].”

Here’s a list of Valley schools that require masks, as of Dec. 16, according to the Ohio Department of Education:

Mahoning County

• Boardman Local Schools;

• Campbell City Schools;

• Canfield Local Schools;

• Youngstown City Schools.

Trumbull County

• Champion Local Schools;

• Girard City Schools;

• Howland Local Schools;

• Hubbard Exempted Village;

• Joseph Badger Local;

• Lakeview Local Schools;

• Liberty Local Schools;

• Lordstown Local Schools;

• Newton Falls Exempted Village;

• Niles City Schools;

• Warren City Schools;

• Weathersfield Local.

Columbiana County

East Liverpool City Schools.

Taking New Year’s Eve precautions

For those deciding on New Year’s Eve parties, Vanderhoff strongly encouraged people to take safety precautions during the upcoming holiday weekend.

“Keeping vaccinations up to date, appropriate testing, staying home if you feel the least bit sick, masking especially in crowded indoor environments, proper ventilation and regular hand washing can all help prevent the spread of COVID-19, flu, and other illnesses this season,” he said.

Dr. Richard P. Lofgren, president and CEO of University of Cincinnati Health, stressed having proper ventilation in rooms to prevent the airborne illness from spreading.

“This really is the air in which you breathe, so it makes a difference in terms of ventilation,” he said. “It spreads through the air and floats in the air, so we need to think about the ventilation.”