1,082,815 cases in Ohio; 448,215 in Kentucky; 728,811 in Indiana

what? Mhm. Good afternoon everyone. Mhm. Mhm Fran. I was saddened to learn about the death of Nelsonville Firefighter Chef Arms. He was responding to a fire last night when he collapsed and died. We want to keep his family as well as the fire department and our thoughts and our prayers. Our first responders take risks every single day. Um This is a tragedy and we're very very sorry. As I said for his family in honor of his life, his service. I have ordered that the flags at the statehouse as well as the rife and roads center be at half staff as well as the flags in Athens County. They will remain at half staff until the night of his funeral. Last week I announced a major change in our quarantine policy just to recap. Now in the Ohio one who has been fully vaccinated Will no longer have to quarantine if they are exposed to someone with COVID-19. Certainly this has a big impact on students um fully vaccinated. They now do not have to quarantine if they've been exposed, won't have to miss sports or won't have to miss other extracurricular activities. This also course applies to adults, uh applies to all adults except those who were in nursing homes, assisted living facilities or other kind of care settings outlined in the order. Now let me move to our new order for today and this has to do with those who work in nursing homes and those who work in assisted living facilities. This new order is consistent with a federal government regulations with the CDC has put out and CMS. The new order that I'm announcing today will exempt will exempt fully vaccinated employees of nursing homes and assisted living from requirement that they be tested. So normal routine testing that occurs now for those who work in nursing homes will not apply to anyone who has been fully vaccinated. Mhm. Unvaccinated staff in those facilities will continue to have to be tested twice a week. So if your unvaccinated is twice a week you'll be tested. If you have been fully vaccinated, then you no longer will have to be tested. As we've talked about before. An individual's concerned fully vaccinated two weeks after their second dose of fight, or two weeks after their second dose of Madonna in two weeks after their soul shot of J. And J. That's the definition of fully fully vaccinated. So we hope that this change will give give encouragement to those who worked in nursing homes who have not been vaccinated yet. Uh to take advantage of the opportunity to be vaccinated. Uh This is something that we have continued to do and that is to provide vaccine to all our nursing homes so that there is someone who is coming in, who is a new resident, someone who is a new employee, they can be vaccinated. Uh The same is true. If someone is a resident, they've changed their mind and now they decide we want, I want to be vaccinated, they can get vaccinated. And the same is true for order employee employee who had the opportunity to be vaccinated the first time, but pass that up. So again that vaccine is in our nursing homes or making sure that this is a continuing program. It has been a very, very successful program vaccine those in our nursing homes. But we do know that when staff is not vaccinated, that does increase obviously the odds of that virus of the virus getting into the nursing home. And we saw this recently in the last few days in regard to our veterans home. Let me talk for a moment now about those who are homebound and I want to congratulate our health departments who have been doing a very, very good job in regard to reaching those individuals who literally cannot leave their home. Those individuals come in contact with people because there may be caregivers who are coming in and out of the home. And so again, it's very important that these individuals who are homebound had the opportunity to be vaccinated. And one thank the health department's for doing this. We have another announcement and that is um, the Ohio department aging in the Ohio Department Health have put together together a homebound vaccination playbook for organisations working to ensure homebound individuals have access to the vaccine. By utilizing existing existing rapid response teams, we can work to deliver vaccine to those individuals at home. That playbook is available on the coronavirus website at coronavirus dot Ohio gov. That's coronavirus dot Ohio Gov. That's the playbook. Then you click on COVID-19 vaccination program tab. If you are a homebound individuals or you know of a homebound individual, you have a family member who is homebound and they have not yet been vaccinated. You can call your local area Agency on aging. That is 1866 2435678. As again, (866 243 5678. And that's your local area agency on aging. They went for this that they could also of course call their local health department. ErIC let's go to the data So we'll see our cases the last 24 hours are down. We're happy to certainly happy to see those, Those numbers below a 1000 And running lower than the 21 day average. So we're edging downward in the number of cases, which is very, very good news. Hospitalizations are less, a little bit less than the 21 day average. The icu admissions were Higher than the 21 day average. Just look at the next one Eric. This is all Ohio counties ranked by highest occurrence. And the good news is when you see white, that's better. So we're seeing these are the counties that have the least um number of cases in the last two weeks, the least number of cases in the last two weeks. And you'll see those numbers are These counties are creeping up. We hope to see that continue. We are moving in the right direction. In regard to cases, let's take a look at the top 20. These are our top 20 and generally you're going to see that these are uh in the northern part of the state, although it certainly are not all in the northern part of the state. The highest incidence of cases, Lucas county. Next is cuyahoga County, then Belmont County, Erie ashtabula defiance. Then we get down to Madison in the central part of the state Adams in the southern part of the state. So those are the, those are the top counties. Let's look at the next one Eric. This is the number that we have been reporting and we usually report the midweek, we thought we'd give you a A preview of what is today, at least 147 9. If you'll recall when we announced our goal, getting it below 50. We were right in this neighborhood. Uh, and then unfortunately after that it went up. So it is now back getting back down. I think it was 144 or something like that when we announced that goal. So we hope this continues to go down and at least it's headed in the right direction. We'll go to the next one Eric this is our vaccine slides and we have seen the number of vaccines go down whether dramatically in Ohio. The number of people being vaccinated uh, today is monday. So this reflects a weekend. This reflects mostly sunday. Uh, so the number there is Very low lowest. We have seen it a little over 5000. We are now at 43 9 and always interesting to look at these numbers in regard to how we are doing by age and again the older Ohioans um, over Ohio ones or vaccine obviously at a higher rate but all the numbers continue to creep up. But with that low number not not good, we hope to see a better number tomorrow erIC let's go the second dose of second doses That were ministered yesterday, a little over 90 Let's go the next slider. So this is a new, this is a new slide and uh we're gonna hold it up there for a minute eric you know, this is our age groups. The first side of this is age groups, By percentage of those vaccinated. Uh so 0-19 certainly is misleading because obviously 15 and below cannot get vaccinated When you break that out to 16 and 17 year olds. Then we also sometimes break it out 1718 year olds, those are not bad numbers, those are around 25 was about a quarter. Uh not horrible numbers but so that's a misleading, a little bit misleading number. You'll see the rest of the age groups basically um Go up by by percentage and we've grouped those over 60 into 11 group. So this is percentage on the right hand side of the slide percentage of those in that age group who have been vaccinated this side, um, is a percentage increase in cases between March, comparing March and april. And what is dramatic about this? And one of things I wanted to point out, it's been reported, certainly in the media, but if you look at this first zero 2, 19, 0-19 group, that is the biggest increase in cases. By far, you'll see another age group, 30 to 39 is Has gone up not nearly as much, but has gone up 4%. The age group 0, 19 has gone up 15%. And then you'll see the other age groups have gone down, particularly the older age groups have gone down the biggest percentage. So again, pretty much what we would expect. Those who have been vaccinated or less. Their cases are cases are going down Kind of the one outlier is 30- 39 and that was a small, small increase. And uh, you know, your guess is as good as mine. This may be a more socially active group and that's why those numbers are where they are, but certainly it would have been much higher if they had not been getting vaccinated. Let's go the next one eric um, I don't think we put this up before. This is vaccinations by county of residence. And again, when someone is vaccinated in Ohio, no matter where they get the vaccine, uh, it goes back and attributes that to their county of residence. We have some people obviously who come in from other states, just as we have Ohioans who have gone into other states. But this is the percentage of people in that county that have been vaccinated, 1st, 1st dose. So it's just a it's a it's an interesting way to look at what is going on in the particular county erIC. Let's go the next one. This is our hospitalization. This is again a number of people in the hospital as of yesterday. So a little uptick but still Maintaining pretty pretty decent numbers. 1100 1140 Eric. And that is it. Let me let me go to the lieutenant governor. Thanks governor. I'm here as you can see it Southern here, Hill's Career and Technical Centre uh where this is all part of our stop on in demand jobs week. We were, I was just part of a signing ceremony where many students are signing on right out of high school into careers that they have been prepared for through their work here at the Southern Hills. I started out today at our Innovation district Government, was just basically over a year ago that we did the, we created the innovation District in Cincinnati in conjunction with the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Uh, the, uh, we were there at the 18 19 center on campus that you see where you can see all a number of students that I met today working, um, already working with businesses while attending college and and actively recruiting them to stay in Ohio for Ohio employers. I should mention that they're in the innovation district, a combination between, you see And Cincinnati Children's hospital that they do $450 million and uh, the work there on the University of Cincinnati campus and jobs Ohio through the creation of the innovation district is working to produce more steps from there. I went to huge stem high School in Cincinnati met with many from the Cincinnati public schools, um business advisory group and The Cincinnati public schools. The administration has been working closely together and they are one of our 12 pilot sites for the high school internship uh, project that we're operating to get high school students and with tech skills already working out there in um, the, the business field, the field of their, their uh preparation that we know will help keep more high school students aligned with a lot of businesses, keep them in school if they want to go to college and lead, helping them become part of our workforce. I also, as I alluded to earlier to signing days, One in Bethel for the Grant Career Center, the other Georgetown here for the Southern Hills Career Technical Center, as I mentioned where I am now, what we do with these signing days. As we celebrate what we value, which is high school students earning career credentials that lead directly to careers right out of high school. The employers are lining up the many of them today who love these students. Many of these students have already been working at these businesses have earned tens of thousands of dollars in some case while they're in high school now, they're signing, leaving high school going to work. And I also must mention that many of them also earned college credits while simultaneously going to high school under the college credit plus program. It's in demand jobs week. I encourage, if you want to know, you want to give advice to your grandson, granddaughter, son, daughter, uh about where the work of the future is. Go to top jobs dot Ohio dot gov. Got a great list there of the kinds of jobs that are available, uh what ones are growing, what they pay all of those kinds of things which are which are very very important. And your career center is not your today's career center is not your mom and Dad's career center, so to speak. They are highly, highly successful at preparing people for work and technical credentials and in jobs. And so that's where we've been today. And we'll do this throughout the week, celebrating this all across the state as employers are readily participating with the educators in preparing these students for careers and in some cases college as well. And that and with that governor of one last point that I want to make today, We are one Ohio is one of 10 states in the nation. To partner with the US. Census Bureau to match public college and university graduates with wage and earning data. So you can look uh at data at Ohio Gov and find out um what you're going to make on average graduating from every institution in Ohio with one year of experience, five years of experience out, 10 years of experience out postgraduate has the the income data about this is what you majored in. This is what the what the people in those degree areas are actually making. Uh this we think is a great tool. Help continue to inform people about what worked and what education looks like. How to really match that together with whether or not you want to get a student loan, whether you want to do something differently. And all of this is available at data dot Ohio dot gov. And it's under post secondary employment outcomes Explorer. So lots of information on careers education, uh and what exists for you as a student for the future. And we're going to continue governor during the in demand jobs week of building the greatest workforce in the entire country. Right here in Ohio were already well on our way. Great institutions working with business to provide that workforce in the future with Ohio's unemployment rate 4.7% well below the national average. Over 93,000 jobs now pay over $50,000 a year approximately. So there at Ohio means jobs. Uh, it's time to pursue those career opportunities in many ways that we have to do it right here in Ohio. Thank you Governor. Well, lieutenant governor looks like you're having a great, great day. Um, thank you very much for that. Great, great report. Just a couple other comments as we look at making the vaccine available to everyone in the state of Ohio. Our health departments are doing some amazing work and just want to give a couple of examples. The Dayton in Montgomery County Health Department using a public transit bus to go into communities to give the vaccine. They're focusing on areas where there are those who haven't received the vaccines. Uh, no appointments necessary, no appointment necessary. Uh, and they promote their destination on social media every day. Several local health departments are going out to sights and attractions, such as going to where baseball games are occurring, going out in front of casinos, uh, out in front of movie theaters, dining our districts to vaccinate employees and patrons at the Clark County Health Department purchased a box truck at a federal auction to utilize as a mobile unit to take vaccines out into neighborhoods in Clark County. This is also promoted on their social media accounts. Since then, public health is going to libraries to do vaccines and holding a block party type events to gather people together. And these are just a couple examples. The Cleveland indians in the Cincinnati reds are often offering reduced prices for those who come to the box office and show their vaccination card. And I know others are doing that as well. Some of the minor league teams, I believe we're doing that as well. Let me talk for a moment about the Wilstein Center. Wilstein Center at Cleveland State is now open for walk ins. And last week we began offering a second round of first doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Or numbers certainly have decreased from the high numbers that we had going on. We've adapted the Waldstein centers operations to allow walk ins for those that prefer not to preregister and simply want to get their vaccine. This is a strategy that is really paying off and not only in the Waldstein center, but we're seeing this across the state more and more of our providers are offering walk in opportunities at Wilstein last week, We vaccinate over 2000 people who just walked in. Um if you look at the total number of people last week that we're vaccinate the Waldstein Center, approximately 44 of those vaccinated were minorities and approximately 68 of those individuals came from the highest social vulnerability zip codes that we have been targeting. Uh huh. This week is National Travel and Tourism week. We have a lot to see in a lot to do in Ohio. Um Friend, I will be traveling the state on Wednesday and we're going to see some of the, some of the different sites in Ohio. But it would take months to see everything and you couldn't get it done in a whole year. Ohio has got so many wonderful things to see. We just encourage everyone this summer to go out and enjoy our, our great state. So I think now eric we are ready for questions governor. First question today is from Courtney Francisco at WCpo in Cincinnati. Hi, can you take us back to the first few days of the pandemic governor and talk to us about what health professionals were telling you about possible death toll. Um, I want to talk a little bit more about the restrictions of certain activities, if that makes sense? I don't know that. I can accurately remember exactly what they told us about death toll. What they told us was that yeah, going through this experience, we would have to act early. It might seem too early, but later on that might even look too late. And so the one thing that was emphasized by our health experts that we talked to was you must act early during a pandemic. Next question is from spencer, Hickey and Hannah news service. Thank you governor. There was a story in the new york times this morning on concerns among the public health community that herd immunity may not be attainable in the US nationally. I was wondering if you could comment on that and vaccine hesitancy in general? Well yes, I'm gonna I've read the article uh and I'm gonna let dr Vanderhof take a first shot at that. No, not he's not on. Okay. Doctor Vanderhof is not here. So I guess you get the non doctor today. So I read I read read the article. Um you know, we have not, we're not setting any number that we think is our ceiling. We continue to see even high numbers are group. For example, The the 70s is Is very high, those over 80 it's high. But we continue to see those numbers go up. And so every group, our job we think is to offer this to every group, make sure that it is available to them in a convenient place, continue to talk about that's how safe this is and how effective it works. That's really what our job is. As far as the herd immunity. You know, the essence for someone didn't read that article. The essence of the article as you say, was quoting some scientists and health professionals who said with the hesitancy that a certain percentage of the population has, that we would probably not hit quote herd immunity. Um what we do know is this that the more people that get vaccinated, the harder it is for this virus to spread, the more people that get vaccinated, the fewer people are going to get sick, the more people get vaccinated, the fewer people are going to die. So our goal is to continue every single day and we're seeing our cases go down. Um, we set a goal. We're now seeing the cases go down and we believe that the reason those cases are going down primarily is because of the vaccine. We think the fact that we still are getting very good compliance. I looked this morning 93 compliance in our retail stores that people were in a mass. So staying on defense but also getting the shots in people's arms every time we get even if a small day like yesterday where he didn't have that many people get vaccinated each one of those counts. And it is like putting everyday putting money in the bank because you know that you're going to get full vaccination, you know, after a number of weeks after that and nothing's gonna stop that that's going to actually occur. So we're going to continue to do that. We hope that is the vaccination rate of bigger percentage were now over 40 about 40.5%. Uh And as those numbers continue to move up, even if they're moving up slower than they were before, we believe we're going to see the cases continue to go down and that's frankly what what we have to do. The next question is from Jeff Reddick at W. S. Y. X. In columbus. Hey Jeff, good afternoon governor. I just wanted to see what your feelings were. I'm sure you were able to catch some some images of the draft up in Cleveland, thursday, friday saturday, Probably one of the most crowded events with people from all over the country that we've seen in Ohio in quite some time. Uh And that was the reasoning originally for shutting down the Arnold here in columbus was that people will be traveling from all over to one area so there were masks in place of course, but it was a lot of people, I'm just curious if there's any worry about transmission from that event that since it didn't require vaccination. That's a good question. The NFL worked very closely with us, the browns worked very closely with us. They set the guidelines as you know they had an area there where people all had to be had to be vaccinated that was there. They set that um you know what the basic principle is. A couple of basic principles Outside is always a lot, lot lot better than inside. And so this was basically an outside event that you were seeing on on on T. V. But the basic rules still apply and that is people need to be masked. Um if they cannot maintain social distance outside. And so you know you saw what you saw, I saw what I saw uh you know we saw a lot of people mask, I saw some people who did not have mask. So if anyone is not wearing a mask and they're you know not socially distance obviously that's not what we what we want to see. Uh But by and large uh you know so a lot of people with with mask on and that's you know that's that's where we are. So it's uh you know we're in a different word in a different phase in this and we know more than we knew before. We know two things really, really that we didn't know as much before. one is outside is a lot lot better than inside and to worry mask really, really matter. And those are the, those are just as we move forward in this as we move out of this. Those are things I think we have to keep in mind as we continue to vaccinate people. Next question is from Laura Hancock at Cleveland dot com governor. What do you think about lawmakers in the house version of the budget bill offering tax cuts? Even though the american rescue plan says you can't do that. Uh Laura, we've got a long way to go. I'm not going to comment as we go through this process on every single item that's in the budget. Uh you know, I have the opportunity to talk with the leaders and we continue to exchange ideas as you know, this is a process and you know, I get the first shot because I get to put a proposed budget out. House goes next. Then the senate goes, then they come together. We hope we come together then and get a bill passed by the by the budget deadlines. So I'm not gonna get into every every single item. Are you concerned that it's going to jeopardize the federal money to bail out the unemployment system and other things that you have? And I'm in mine. I'm sorry, my concern about what uh um it's going to jeopardize the federal money that you want to bail out the unemployment system and among other things that you want. Yeah. Well, I don't think it's gonna look, I don't think it's that we have a real consensus. I think that we need to use some of this money in regard to the unemployment get it where it needs to be. So, but I don't think that um you know, we're not gonna do anything that jeopardizes them. Next question is from Courtney Wheaton at W K E. F in Dayton. Hi, Governor, sounds like there are work force development opportunities for in demand job weeks and in general. But employers online, Ohioans are still concerned about not being able to hire workers. Many are complaining about unemployment ruining it for them and lack of interest in working or fear about working during the pandemic. Is there a plan to address that problem? Uh Look, if if there's a problem there, uh you know, that was not not created by the state, um you know, the laws that are passed at the federal level, and I'd see the same thing. I was in a restaurant in Youngstown The last 10 days ago, I guess. And you had that discussion with the owner. I know the Lieutenant governor's had discussions with owners of businesses about not being able to find employees. So you know, that is a that is a problem as far as the specific unemployment, you know, Again, that is something that some employers have told us. Yes, that's we believe that that's one of the reasons that they're not able to find people the work, but it is a problem out there. As lieutenant Governor, you know, goes through almost every week, you know, doesn't list them all, but tell us how many very very good paying jobs that are out there. So part of, part of our job, what we see as part of our job with skill jobs and be able to make the everyone be able to access that training to get them up to a higher, higher level of skill sets so they can make more money and so they can fit the different jobs that are out there and qualify for the different jobs that are out there. Next question is from Adrian Robbins at WCMH in columbus governor. Um if we continue to see our vaccine, the amount of vaccines were giving out from day to day go down and we see more and more vaccine hesitancy, How does that change? What you think? Ohio will look like this summer. I know previously a lot of people were looking forward to a relatively normal summer. Um if we don't get more and more people getting the shot, how does that change that? So? Well, I think one of the things that the experts are telling us is that the, you know, this concept of herd immunity where mine went uh is that means we're done with the the virus. I think when you when you read what the experts are saying now you know does not. Mhm Very few people are saying we're going to get rid of this virus uh we're gonna drive it down and we're going to get most of us are going to get get protected. So it is looks to me as if we are talking about living with at a much lower rate and frankly as governor of people who Ohio the lower the rate the better. Um So you know we do have as we've talked about this is kind of a strange time. We have the tools keep driving it down. Um Yeah there's reason for people to be more optimistic. We're seeing the case numbers go down but at the same time if you are someone who has not been vaccinated we still have a variant that is out there that is more contagious than it was a few months ago. And so even though cases are down, if you have not been vaccinated, the risk to you is certainly very, very significant. So the concern I think that many people have expressed is that people be lulled into a sense of complacency or a log into a sense of security and that that is a false sense of security. So if you have not been vaccinated, you are certainly subject to getting this again. And depending on uh one of things we've learned is this virus impacts people just differently and we never, you never know. It's not like you can go get a test and find out, hey is this virus you know, how much is it going to hurt me? Is it gonna put me in the hospital? Is it gonna potentially kill me or is it just gonna be like the light flu? No one can tell you that. And so that's, that's the danger. And so you know, I think summer is going to be good. I think people have an opportunity, you know, we're getting back to where we want to be. If you look at the economic numbers, they are good. Ohio is coming back strong. But my caution is if you have not been vaccinated, this is a high risk gamble, A very high risk situation. If you have been vaccinated, people are going more to restaurants, they're going more to bars, they're going to movie theaters, they're going to baseball games. There's, there's a world out there and once you're vaccinated you have great opportunity to live your life. And so we just continue to encourage people to get vaccinated. But for those who have not been vaccinated, there's a, there's a real risk out there. And that's that's the concern, frankly that I have. Next question is from Jim province at the Toledo Blade, Jim. Hi, Hello, dan governor. Um, can you give us an idea of what went through your head as you saw some of the images coming out of India over the last few days? Uh, and specifically, could you give us an idea of whether or not you ever thought in your mind that things could ever get that bad here? Well, there's a horrible, you know, it's just horrible. And you know, we've been through, we've seen scenes before. Um, you know, at one. Italy looked look bad. I don't know if I can compare one to the other, but what we're seeing out of India's just gut wrenching and you know, without the quality of the vaccine. So yeah, it's just just this horrible. It's absolutely horrible. Your question was did I ever think that we could see that here? You know jim I I think that we didn't know what we could see here for sure. But we did feel it could be bad and the experts were telling us it could be bad. And you know, I think it's always hard for that to sink in when none of us have had this life experience before. You know when when you don't have a life experience, when nothing like this has ever happened in your lifetime is very difficult to really have a sink into your head. Um But certainly experts were telling us it could be very very very bad. Next question is from scott Palace of the senior daily gazette, How are you today? I'm well sir. Well good, good, good. Glad to hear. Um so kind of a follow up to a couple of the other questions that had to do with it. I think the draft and whatever, you know baseball has been going on for about a month now. The reds had a lot of home games. The indians have to, they've increased attendance. Uh My cubbies were in town this weekend. They always bring a good crowd. Um What have you heard from the two teams? As far as cooperation with masking social distancing any issues like that? And if things go well, could we start to see more and more people, you know, being allowed at ball games to where we get, you know, somewhat back to normal. Yeah. First of all I you know my sympathy to you as a cubs fan. Sorry you're a cubs fan. I've never been, I've never I've never been able to figure out why we have these cubs fans that descend on great american ballpark when the cubs are in town. But that's that's another that's another story. Nothing, nothing more fun than being right by a cubs fan. So, at any rate, you know, scott, I told the minor league teams, I told the major league teams that I felt that there's a summer went on. We will be able to have more people at the ballpark and I still feel the same thing. I think that, you know, we've already seen it, one increase we've been able to do. And again, you know, there's a difference between outside and inside. We can do things safely. Inside. Outside is just a lot safer. Uh and, you know, some people have tried to put, how many times safer is it? 15 times 18 times a I don't know, but we know it's a lot lot lot safer. And so the ability to do things at the ballpark that's obviously outside is significant. And I watched the reds games and you know, a lot of people have mask on, some don't, but they are out, they are outside. And I think things are going pretty well. Those two ballparks games. I've seen the indians and the reds. Next question is from jesse walmart, the Cincinnati Enquirer. Hello governor. Just my question is for fully vaccinated adults and teens is they're going to make any change to the health orders or guidance as to what they can do inside going forward. Yeah. Look, jesse, I don't have anything today. But I think you're gonna we're going to continue to try to have our health orders reflect medical reality and the medical reality is you're fully vaccinated for you. The situation is much certainly much much better and it's very different. It's life changing. Um So, you know, we'll continue to look at these, I'll continue to consult. Medical advisers. Will certainly, you know, talked about Dr Vanderhof. But as far as you know, any other changes. Yeah. There may be other other changes again. What you're seeing is, you know, what you saw with the NFL. You know, the NFL made a decision. If you're vaccinated, you can be here. They made that decision. We didn't make that decision. We're also following medical facts when we say someone who is working in a nursing home who are now testing twice a week. Well, if you've been vaccinated, you really don't need to be tested twice a week. You don't need to be tested. And so you're starting to see science drive these distinctions And it's not that we don't care about one citizen more than another. That's not it. It's just science is going to drive these distinctions between those have been vaccinated, those who have not been vaccinated and many of those are being driven by the private, by the private sector and we will continue to try to do is not have health orders that are holding people back from things that medically they ought to be able to do and health wise ought to be able to do because they've been vaccinated. Next question is from Mike Livingston at Gang war News Service. In my Yeah. Governor, What is the status of your conversations with your team about possibly adding a goal to remove health orders tied to vaccination rates? Thanks. Um, ongoing. We continue to look at this, continue to discuss it. I have nothing to announce today. Again, I believe that, you know, one thing impacts the other and I believe that the reason you're seeing, you know, and a decrease in the number of cases statewide which would like to see has to do with more and more people becoming fully backs to. So even though even though we're cutting down, we're seeing the number of people vaccinated every day. We're still seeing people vaccinated and then we had people vaccinated three weeks or four weeks ago. But now we're getting the immunity for immunity. So that will we think will continue. So we think those are two are related very, very closely to each other, but we have not yet come up with a here's here's the specific number that all health orders will come off and we're still talking about. Still looking at next question is from Justin Dennis at Mahoning Matters dot com. Good afternoon governor. Thanks for briefing us today. Uh, in reviewing local vaccination rates. Mahoney matters has found local health officials administered fewer doses last week and the week of january 17th when vaccine was much more scarce. Well, these trends, do you feel have an impact on Ohio's vaccine allocation? Could treatment start going elsewhere possibly? Would we see less vaccine in the state because of this? Yeah, Justin, I'm not sure I, I got the first part of that. So let me try to answer what I got. And then if I didn't answer the question, come right back and we'll have a second go go with this. I mean we or truck, what we have done is at first We were going still with a lot of different locations, but I think that we first start off at 650, something like that. And we're trying to push it out as fast as we could because we knew this tremendous, tremendous demand. What we've done in the last several weeks is we've tried to spread this out even more. For example, Primary care physicians, you know, we didn't give it to a lot of primary care physician is the first few weeks because some of them could only get 50 out of week. And our goal at that point was just to shove it out as quickly as we could. Now we're getting now we're fine tuning and getting down and we know that some primary care physicians will be able to call up their patients and those patients who trust them. We'll get that vaccine, whereas they might not have gone to a mass vaccination side or might not have gone to their local pharmacy. So we've continued, we have changed that, but we clearly now have a lot more vaccine than we have demand. And so we make judgment calls every single week, you know, porter to send that. I've told our team anybody who wants it, who we think has any chance of getting in people's arms. Let's give it to him. Let's get it out to them. And that's that's kind of been the change that that you've seen. But we are not. You know, obviously if you look at the numbers, they're down, you know, Down dramatically from what they were 34 weeks ago. I don't know. I may have missed part of the question. Well, anything else on that? Yeah. Just it was just explaining for local context. Our local officials last week administered fewer doses than they did the week of January 17 when the vaccine was much more scarce. So yeah, no, I think that's I think that's probably uh true statewide. I mean, some of it, some of us natural, I mean some of it is, you know, tremendous demand and the people who really want it wanted it. Um, we knew at some point we would start seeing the demand go down and I think we predicted fairly close to the one that was going to occur, but it certainly is going down, you know, very, very significantly at this at this point. But we'll look at these numbers once we get away from the weekend, the next couple of days, you will give us, I think, a better feeling exactly where we are. Thank you. Next question is from josh Woldenberg at Spectrum News Governor. Uh, wanted to ask you a question about redistricting. Um, there is a deadline coming up on Wednesday for whether or not a constitutional amendment could be added um, as far as putting it on the ballot. Um, I know that Senate President Matt Hoffman wants that, but the democrats are opposed to it. Do you have a stance one way or another about what you feel should happen with redistricting? No, I mean, I'm told that that's unlikely to likely to happen. You know, look, we are dealing with new laws um and you know, we need to follow the new law and this is going to be a first impression for for for everyone as we move forward. Let me ask, the former Secretary of State, john is still on there now. He's off to. Okay. Um so you're stuck with my answer. I guess so. Next question is from Jamaat E at HBO and Dayton Governor. I wanted to ask your opinion and analysis on what it's going to take if we're at 40 40% for first vaccinations, what it's going to take to get us to 50. And uh it's not just a matter of convenience, but it sounds given that the R. T. A. Bus is being used in Dayton, a box truck in Clark County. It sounds creativity is the next thing you're counting on to get Us to that next 10 level. Well, jim we are creating start again. We are relying on a great deal of creativity that we're seeing at each different community across the state. I talked to health directors every, every monday morning, they're pulling out all the stops. They're doing everything they can and they're taking it directly to people. I mean the idea of taking a van out, taking a mobile unit out and literally going into a neighborhood announced that you're coming so people can be prepared but going into a neighborhood and setting up shop right there and not requiring anybody to sign up in advance is the way we are going to make this available to everyone. And the facts are that there are people who cannot navigate and don't want to navigate. Maybe just don't want to navigate. Setting up an appointment. Um People who want to go when they want to go, they don't wanna have to set up an appointment. We are here to answer that request from them. So across the state, you're seeing health departments, you're seeing pharmacies, you're seeing doctors who are really doing outreach. We have doctors who are staff is really picking up, nurses are picking up the phone and calling their regular patients and saying we have the vaccine. We're seeing patients show up for physicals or some other reason and doctors turning to them after that is over with and saying we have the vaccine. I think you really should take the vaccine. So that's what's occurring. And I think that people are doing a very good job and working to get it out. But you're absolutely right. What this really takes is ingenuity. Uh, it takes some real energy level and that's what we're doing. We're doing everything that we can to get it out to everyone and make it available for them. Next question is from Andy chow at Ohio public radio and television. Andy. Hey governor, uh, getting back to something you said earlier, you don't think that the state will hit her immunity? Um, Do you think the state will just never get there because of the amount of people in Ohio who are just actively making the decision to not get the vaccine? Okay, well, I don't know that we won't get there. Um If I said that, I'm not sure, I shouldn't have said that what I was doing is trying to tell you what the experts are telling us. Um And I think it's this is not unique to Ohio. I think the national stories that you're reading now and talking about, well we're not going to get to her immunity or we won't get to her immunity this summer. Uh Those are national stories. They're looking at the whole, at the whole country. What makes this difficult is we don't know how many people have immunity Now. We know how many have been vaccinated. We know how many have had their second fact, how many are completely vaccinated. But we don't know how many people, you know had the virus before and are certainly carrying hearing some immunity. So no one knows what the numbers are. So the safest thing to say is if you're vaccinated, you know, you've accomplished a lot for yourself. You've accomplished a lot for the, for the state. If you're not vaccinated, it remains a high, high risk. The more people get vaccinated, fewer cases, we're going to have, the closer we're going to get to driving this vaccine, driving this virus down more vaccinated, the more the virus goes down. Is there a magical point at which we call it her community and it goes away, you know? I don't know. But what we do know is continuing to do to focus on the vaccine and getting in people's arms, is our ticket out of this out of this virus that we are dealing with governor. Next question is the last question for today and it belongs to Danda Rose of W. O. I. O. In Cleveland afternoon, Governor afternoon. Uh, as an indian fan. I I highly stand behind your sentiment about cubby fan. We're not big fans here in Cleveland either. I want to continue sort of on this train of thought about her immunity. And have you personally had any moments where you kind of throw your hands up or you shrug your shoulder and you say, hey, we're doing everything we can to get people vaccinated. We've the Waldstein clinic. That's a surprising number. They're able to handle 6000 doses a day. And yet they only did 2000 walk ins last week. At what point do you throw your hands up and say, hey look, we've done everything we can. We're taking off the restrictions. You called it yourself? You said if you don't have the vaccine, you are a high risk gamble. Yeah. Yeah. First of all, maybe to clarify in regard to the Waldstein, I think there was 5,000 6000, I don't have the exact number in front me who got facts vaccinated last week. So it's about, it was about 1/10 of what, you know, not 1/10. Excuse me, It's a fraction of what it was before. They used to, used to do 6000 day had the ability to do that. So there were some people who had appointments as well as some people who had just walked in as far as do I throw up my hands and say we've done everything we can. Um That's, unfortunately for me, I think that's not my nature. What I basically asked myself every day when I get up is what else can we do? What are we missing? I always think we're missing something and there's something that we're missing that we, you know, we could be doing. And so that's what I'm asking my team every day, That's what I'm asking. Health commissioners every day. Um, and so no, we're, that's not how I approach things. So we got more to do. And I'm sure there's something else out there that we could be doing to increase the number of people who get the vaccine. But if not, we're going to just continue to focus, uh, you know, to grind this out and to do it every single day and to get shots and arms and every day. Even if when we look at the numbers, even if they're low numbers were still getting more people vaccinated. So that's really what, what I think our goal has to be every single day. I want to close to talk a little bit about what we did friday Fran I did were in Ross County to dedicate the Covid 19 Memorial Grove at the Great Seal State, part in honor of the victims And survivors of COVID-19. As well as all Ohioans who have made such amazing personal sacrifices to protect others amid the coronavirus pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic Memorial Grove at Great Seal State Park Includes a grove of 15 newly planted trees surrounding a paved trail, benches will be added to allow visitors to comfortably reflect on the toll of the pandemic on our lives lost, pay tribute to courageous frontline workers and recognize the selfless actions of Ohioans. To slow the spread of the coronavirus, we selected the Great Seal State Park for the COVID-19 pandemic Memorial Grove due to its rich history and its central location. It is a beautiful spot. I hope the grove brings Ohioans peace comfort and certainly hope. Thank you all very much. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm.

Coronavirus latest: 1,082,815 cases in Ohio; 448,215 in Kentucky; 728,811 in Indiana

Updated: 2:40 PM EDT May 8, 2021

The COVID-19 outbreak is continuing to change everyday life for millions of Americans. Leaders across the county, including the Tri-State area, are providing daily updates on confirmed cases, deaths and measures taking to curb the spread of the virus. Here, you can get the latest information on the coronavirus in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana as well as resources to be prepared and keep your family safe.LATEST CASE NUMBERS: Ohio, 1,082,815, 19,428 deaths | Kentucky 448,215 cases, 6,559 deaths | Indiana, 728,811 cases, 12,991 deathsEducational resources: CLICK HERE to access online learning resourcesCORONAVIRUS IN OHIOFully vaccinated employees in Ohio's nursing homes and assisted living facilities will no longer have to undergo twice-weekly testing for the coronavirus, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Monday in an effort to boost worker vaccination rates.A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second of the Moderna or Pfizer doses or the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine. The change is consistent with federal guidelines, DeWine said.“We hope that this change will give encouragement to those who work in nursing homes who have not been vaccinated yet,” DeWine said. Vaccination rates among long-term care facility residents have been nearly universal, but are much lower for employees. The governor's announcement also comes as the number of people getting vaccines has decreased steadily in recent weeks.On April 8, more than 100,000 people completed the vaccination process, a figure that fell to fewer than 37,000 as of Friday, according to Health Department data.Overall, more than than 4.7 million people in Ohio have received at least one shot of the vaccine as of this week, or about 40% of the population. More than 3.8 million people, or about 33% of the population, have completed the process.CORONAVIRUS IN KENTUCKYKentucky reported more than 630 new coronavirus cases and 11 more virus-related deaths on Friday.More than 1.85 million Kentuckians have received at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Andy Beshear said. Anyone 16 or older is eligible to receive the vaccine in Kentucky."We are lifting more restrictions each month as we get more folks vaccinated, open our schools and protect our neighbors from this virus that has already killed more than 6,500 Kentuckians,” the governor said in a news release.On Thursday, Beshear announced that Kentucky businesses and events with fewer than 1,000 people will be allowed to operate at 75% capacity starting May 28. Any indoor and outdoor events drawing more than 1,000 people will be able to operate at 60% capacity, also starting May 28.The state reported 638 new COVID-19 cases Friday. With the 11 deaths announced Friday, Kentucky's death toll from the coronavirus was at least 6,559. One death announced Friday was discovered through the state’s audit of deaths from previous months.The statewide rate of positive cases was 3.50%.CORONAVIRUS IN INDIANAThe Indiana Department of Health announced Saturday that 1,056 additional Hoosiers have been diagnosed with COVID-19.That brings the number of Indiana residents now known to have had the novel coronavirus to 728,811 following corrections to the previous day’s dashboard.To date, 12,991 Hoosiers are confirmed to have died from COVID-19, an increase of eight from the previous day. Another 414 probable deaths have been reported to date based on clinical diagnoses in patients for whom no positive test is on record.A total of 3,416,811 unique individuals have been tested in Indiana, up from 3,411,825 on Friday. A total of 9,999,600 tests, including repeat tests for unique individuals, have been reported to the state Department of Health since Feb. 26, 2020.Hoosiers age 16 and older can receive a COVID-19 vaccine. As of Saturday, a total of 4,542,667 doses have been administered in Indiana. This includes 2,431,938 first doses and 2,110,729 individuals who are fully vaccinated. The fully vaccinated number represents individuals who have received a second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines and those who received the single Johnson & Johnson vaccine.Symptoms:According to the CDC, the following symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure: Fever, cough and shortness of breath.Emergency warning signs include:Difficulty breathing or shortness of breathPersistent pain or pressure in the chestNew confusion or inability to arouseBluish lips or face*This list is not all inclusive. Please consult your medical provider for any other symptoms that are severe or concerning.This chart from Prospect Pediatrics compares COVID-19 symptoms to the cold and flu:Resources: - Ohio coronavirus hotline: 833-427-5634- Kentucky coronavirus hotline: (800) 722-5725- Indiana general questions can be directed to the ISDH Epidemiology Resource Center at 317-233-7125 (317-233-1325 after hours) or e-mail [email protected] for Disease Control and Prevention websiteWhat to do if you think you have it:Officials have urged people to be conscious not to overwhelm the health care system. This graphic will help you decide when it is time to see a physician. Helpful tips and guides: → Here's what you should do if you already have the coronavirus → Dealing with stress, anxiety during coronavirus outbreak→ These viral social media coronavirus posts are FALSE→ How long should you wash your hands to avoid the coronavirus?→ Guidance for self isolation and home quarantine→ How to clean your car for coronavirus→ A guide to keeping your child safe and reassured as coronavirus spreads→ This map tracks the coronavirus in real time→ How to work from home without losing your sanity

CINCINNATI —

The COVID-19 outbreak is continuing to change everyday life for millions of Americans. Leaders across the county, including the Tri-State area, are providing daily updates on confirmed cases, deaths and measures taking to curb the spread of the virus.

Here, you can get the latest information on the coronavirus in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana as well as resources to be prepared and keep your family safe.

LATEST CASE NUMBERS: Ohio, 1,082,815, 19,428 deaths | Kentucky 448,215 cases, 6,559 deaths | Indiana, 728,811 cases, 12,991 deaths

Educational resources: CLICK HERE to access online learning resources

CORONAVIRUS IN OHIO

Fully vaccinated employees in Ohio's nursing homes and assisted living facilities will no longer have to undergo twice-weekly testing for the coronavirus, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Monday in an effort to boost worker vaccination rates.

A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second of the Moderna or Pfizer doses or the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine. The change is consistent with federal guidelines, DeWine said.

“We hope that this change will give encouragement to those who work in nursing homes who have not been vaccinated yet,” DeWine said.

Vaccination rates among long-term care facility residents have been nearly universal, but are much lower for employees. The governor's announcement also comes as the number of people getting vaccines has decreased steadily in recent weeks.

On April 8, more than 100,000 people completed the vaccination process, a figure that fell to fewer than 37,000 as of Friday, according to Health Department data.

Overall, more than than 4.7 million people in Ohio have received at least one shot of the vaccine as of this week, or about 40% of the population. More than 3.8 million people, or about 33% of the population, have completed the process.

CORONAVIRUS IN KENTUCKY

Kentucky reported more than 630 new coronavirus cases and 11 more virus-related deaths on Friday.

More than 1.85 million Kentuckians have received at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Andy Beshear said. Anyone 16 or older is eligible to receive the vaccine in Kentucky.

"We are lifting more restrictions each month as we get more folks vaccinated, open our schools and protect our neighbors from this virus that has already killed more than 6,500 Kentuckians,” the governor said in a news release.

On Thursday, Beshear announced that Kentucky businesses and events with fewer than 1,000 people will be allowed to operate at 75% capacity starting May 28. Any indoor and outdoor events drawing more than 1,000 people will be able to operate at 60% capacity, also starting May 28.

The state reported 638 new COVID-19 cases Friday. With the 11 deaths announced Friday, Kentucky's death toll from the coronavirus was at least 6,559. One death announced Friday was discovered through the state’s audit of deaths from previous months.

The statewide rate of positive cases was 3.50%.

CORONAVIRUS IN INDIANA

The Indiana Department of Health announced Saturday that 1,056 additional Hoosiers have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

That brings the number of Indiana residents now known to have had the novel coronavirus to 728,811 following corrections to the previous day’s dashboard.

To date, 12,991 Hoosiers are confirmed to have died from COVID-19, an increase of eight from the previous day. Another 414 probable deaths have been reported to date based on clinical diagnoses in patients for whom no positive test is on record.

A total of 3,416,811 unique individuals have been tested in Indiana, up from 3,411,825 on Friday. A total of 9,999,600 tests, including repeat tests for unique individuals, have been reported to the state Department of Health since Feb. 26, 2020.

Hoosiers age 16 and older can receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

As of Saturday, a total of 4,542,667 doses have been administered in Indiana. This includes 2,431,938 first doses and 2,110,729 individuals who are fully vaccinated. The fully vaccinated number represents individuals who have received a second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines and those who received the single Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Symptoms:

According to the CDC, the following symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure: Fever, cough and shortness of breath.

Emergency warning signs include:

• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
• New confusion or inability to arouse
• Bluish lips or face

*This list is not all inclusive. Please consult your medical provider for any other symptoms that are severe or concerning.

This chart from Prospect Pediatrics compares COVID-19 symptoms to the cold and flu:

Resources:

- Ohio coronavirus hotline: 833-427-5634

- Kentucky coronavirus hotline: (800) 722-5725

- Indiana general questions can be directed to the ISDH Epidemiology Resource Center at 317-233-7125 (317-233-1325 after hours) or e-mail [email protected].

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website

What to do if you think you have it:

Officials have urged people to be conscious not to overwhelm the health care system. This graphic will help you decide when it is time to see a physician.

Helpful tips and guides:

→ Here's what you should do if you already have the coronavirus

→ Dealing with stress, anxiety during coronavirus outbreak

→ These viral social media coronavirus posts are FALSE

→ How long should you wash your hands to avoid the coronavirus?

→ Guidance for self isolation and home quarantine

→ How to clean your car for coronavirus

→ A guide to keeping your child safe and reassured as coronavirus spreads

→ This map tracks the coronavirus in real time

→ How to work from home without losing your sanity