Mike DeWine Ohio Coronavirus Briefing Transcript May 19

Governor Mike DeWine: (00:05) I am wearing a tie, good afternoon everybody, a tie from Lourdes University in Sylvania. They're the home of the Gray Wolves, and they have prepared frontline heroes for many decades. Lourdes alumni are the nurses, the EMTs, teachers, social workers, police officers who we depend on every single day. Mary Saban, who is a dear friend of Fran and mine is now working there at Lourdes. So we wish them all the best, and all the alumni, all the best who are out there. Governor Mike DeWine: (00:48) I am signing an order today to lower flags across the state of Ohio to have staff to honor Annie Glenn. Annie Glenn, widow of astronaut and Senator John Glenn, she passed away, we're told, this morning at a nursing facility in St. Paul near her family. Annie Glenn was certainly the most beloved Ohioan. And I think we can say that there wouldn't have been a John Glenn, at least as we knew him, without Annie Glenn. The two were inseparable. The two were real partners and theirs is truly an inspiring love story. She represented all that is good in Ohio, all that is good in this country. Fran and I send our condolences to her family. We're so very, very, sorry. This is a great loss for Ohio. And just to conclude, John Glenn, Annie Glenn, John Glenn, Annie Glenn, true, true heroes, true, great treasures. We were lucky to call both of them our fellow Ohioans. Second tie of the day. This is from Nationwide Children's Hospital to show my support for children's mental health and the hospital's ongoing On Our Sleeves movement. May is mental health awareness month. We know kids are going through extra stress right now, school disruptions, physical separation from friends, in many cases, family hardships. Many more kids may need our support. Nationwide Children's Hospital is truly a gem that we have here in Ohio. It's a great resource for the people of Ohio, great resource for the children. Here's a video about the hospital's efforts this month to shine a light on children's mental health. Speaker 2: (03:35) One in five children is living with a mental illness. During this challenging time, many more could be struggling in silence. On Our Sleeves, the movement to transform children's mental health is here to help. May is mental health awareness month. This month, for our kids, let's put gratitude on our sleeves, because a grateful mindset can significantly improve our mental health. On Our Sleeves has free educational tools and resources for families. Learn more at onoursleeves.org. Governor Mike DeWine: (04:09) Growing Our Gratitude. Growing Our Gratitude is one of their programs. It's a great way to impact our mental health. Maybe tonight you can start a conversation with your children about gratitude. You might ask them, "What are you grateful for?" Sometimes that's hard to answer, but in this time of so many challenges, it really presents us with a chance to connect. It's a chance to reflect. It's a chance to see how each one of us feels about what we can focus on that is in fact positive. If you're looking for other ways to help support your children with their mental health, there are free resources at onoursleeves.org, that's onoursleeves.org. Governor Mike DeWine: (05:05) Dr. Acton is not here today. So I will give some of the numbers. There are a total of 20,952 cases of COVID-19. That is an increase of 498 over yesterday's numbers. The numbers of Ohioans who have died from COVID-19 is increased by 63, over yesterday to 1,720. So we look at the numbers and again, what I always look at is the trend lines, hospitalizations, and again, to look at this from a 21 day trend, and we will see that in the last 24 hours there was a spike. But what you have to really do, what we have to really do, is look at these from a big picture. Look at the last 21 days, three weeks, and what we'll see is the curve is fairly, fairly flat. Same way the deaths, and in cases, you'll see the same thing. Last 24 hours, 498 cases, a 21 day reported case average, 580. So these are numbers that we always look at. So let me talk about a revision of the order that we're issuing today. And I want to go back a little bit in time. We are calling this Urgent Health Advisory, Ohioans Protecting Ohioans. Urgent Health Advisory, Ohioans Protecting Ohioans. Since the original stay at home order, a lot has happened. Our orders have evolved and the circumstances have evolved in Ohio as well. So it's now time for our orders to reflect the reality of where we are today. Governor Mike DeWine: (07:24) These really are the essential facts. One. Ohioans through social distancing have avoided overwhelming our hospitals and we have flattened the curve. And that has been great work by all of you. Number two. A new number for some of us learning it, but we've been watching it for a while in Ohio, the are not number is now one to one. It had been one to two, which simply meant that one person on an average was infecting two people. Now, those numbers are down one to one. Governor Mike DeWine: (08:07) Number three. A lot of our fellow Ohioans have worked very hard to come up with the best practices for business as they reopen. Those best practices that have been worked out by business, by professionals, by people in the health community are now orders. We have put in place a specific framework for how business operates that was not in place when we issued our original state home orders. These new orders protect employees and customers alike. Governor Mike DeWine: (08:49) Four. Original state home order had exceptions including such things as going to the grocery store, to the pharmacy, checking on elderly relatives, attending funerals, weddings, church services, walking in a park, to name a few. Governor Mike DeWine: (09:08) Each order, number five, each or that has reopened a business sector has created additional exceptions to the original order, which has in turn created additional opportunities for people to leave home. Governor Mike DeWine: (09:23) Six. In fact, on April 30th, we changed the name of the order from state home order to a safe at home order. And so we're now moving from orders to strong recommendations. And this is a new phase in our battle against the virus, and it really is even more incumbent as we open up Ohio economically, it's really more important and incumbent upon each of us to protect each other. Our new urgent health advisory is titled Ohioans Protecting Ohioans. It incorporates six feet of social distancing, a limit of 10 people for mass gatherings, frequent hand washing, other sanitation efforts, etc. It incorporates all the business orders about social distancing and sanitation, including employees wearing masks as well as efforts to protect employees and other efforts to protect the public. All of those are incorporated in this new order. Governor Mike DeWine: (10:44) Let me talk about our most vulnerable Ohioans. Our new urgent health advisory considers our most vulnerable Ohioans as those who can suffer the worst impact from the virus. They include those who are 65 years of age or older. They include people of all ages with underlying medical conditions, including chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma, serious heart conditions, compromised immune systems, obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and liver disease. Our urgent health advisory strongly recommends that these Ohioans stay at home as much as possible. They should avoid places where they're likely to encounter a lot of people. When they go out in public, they should wear a mask unless not otherwise indicated, and should practice good hand washing, hygiene, and should of practice the social distancing. They should limit trips out. They should be exceedingly careful. That's for our most vulnerable Ohioans. And again, it is a significant number of people because it's not only those over 65, but it's also those with the medical conditions that we just listed. And again, these are not new. You've heard Dr. Acton talk about these medical conditions many, many, many times. Governor Mike DeWine: (12:26) Let me talk about the rest of Ohioans. For everyone else living in Ohio, we today call upon your sense of personal responsibility and accountability to others. Those Ohioans not considered at high risk certainly can carry the virus. They can spread the disease even when they're showing no symptoms and unaware they are carrying that virus. Even those Ohioans who are not the most vulnerable for death from COVID-19 are certainly vulnerable, we have learned and we have seen, they're vulnerable to developing severe complications such as a stroke, and experiencing long extended stays in a hospital, as we heard from the two individuals who called in the last few days, Governor Mike DeWine: (13:17) Our health advisory recommends, but does not require, it recommends, but does not require that those Ohioans, the rest of the Ohioans, stay at their place of residence when possible with the intent of lowering the rate of the spread of COVID-19. Young, healthy Ohioans should take protective action, and any Ohioan should take protective action because they could unknowingly pass this virus on to one of their fellow citizens. All individuals in Ohio are advised to take precautions to limit the spread of this disease. And again, this could occur unknowingly as we know that there are many people who carry the virus, but who do not show symptoms and certainly do not know themselves that they have it. Governor Mike DeWine: (14:13) Let me talk a moment about travel. While orders have included limited travel restrictions, these will now be lifted. However, while unnecessary travel within or outside of the state of Ohio is permitted, it certainly is not encouraged. And we certainly, while it is permitted, advise people to make their own judgments by whatever the situation is, who they have in their household, who they're traveling with and where they are traveling, and who they interact with when they travel. Again, these are up to each individual. We would just ask that they be cautious. Governor Mike DeWine: (14:56) Persons who have tested positive for COVID-19 and have not recovered or are presumptively diagnosed with COVID-19, or if they are exhibiting the symptoms identified in the screening guidelines available from the CDC and the Ohio Department of Health shall not enter the state. This is not a change. Unless they are doing so under medical orders for purposes of medical care, or being transported by emergency medical services, EMS, or driving, or being driven directly to a medical provider for the purpose of initial care or a permanent resident of the state. Ohioans take care of Ohioans. That is really the core of who we are. And Ohioans have done this very, very well for the past several months. It is how we flatten the curve. That's how we have helped slow the spread of this deadly virus. That's how we have saved the lives of many Ohioans, our neighbors, our friends, our loved ones. And that is, that is how we are going to save our economy. That's how we're going to grow our economy, because we cannot separate keeping safe, keeping the virus spread down and growing the economy. Governor Mike DeWine: (16:14) Without keeping that virus down, we cannot recover economically, no of course can we recover from a health point of view. The coronavirus is not gone. It is real and it is deadly. This new phase that we are now in is about learning to live with the virus. It is with us. It will remain with us for a while and we must do all we can to contain it and keep it from killing our fellow citizens. What this comes down to now is that each of us has responsibility to each other to slow the spread. No other time in our lives, no other time, my guess, for all of us, we will have no other time in our life when our own individual actions or inactions can impact the lives of so many of our fellow citizens. Governor Mike DeWine: (17:10) The virus of course has now become one of the leading causes of death in Ohio. Preliminary research indicates that as of May 19th, more than 90,000 people in the United States, including 1,720 Ohioans have died with the COVID-19. These numbers, as we have seen here, continue to increase daily. Cases have been in detected all 88 counties. The majority of hospital admissions and deaths are among adults, age 60 and older. However, another interesting statistic, nearly half of reported COVID-19 cases in Ohio are among adults ages 30 to 59. The risk of the health of all Ohioans does remain high and we must protect each other. We owe it to each other. Governor Mike DeWine: (18:10) What we do individually will be what saves Ohioans collectively. Taking the protective actions that we are recommending today will not only help you, but they will help protect your loved ones. They will help protect your neighbors and they will help protect people you do not even know. The concept of love thy neighbor is as old as the scriptures. It is something that we all believe. It is something that will protect your children, your family members, your mom, your dad, your grandparents, your friends, your neighbors, and your fellow Ohioans. By taking personal responsibility, Ohioans are taking the most aggressive action we can against the virus. Governor Mike DeWine: (19:03) We have control of this. Our economic recovery and success as a state is dependent upon our respect for one another. And it's dependent upon each of us taking personal responsibility to keep the other ones safe. I truly believe Ohioans have risen to the challenge in the past. We will continue to do so as we move through this period of time. Yesterday, I told you that we had our first resident cases of COVID-19 in our state veterans home in Sandusky. Just a short time ago, sadly, our Ohio Department of Veteran Services informed me that a veteran who has confirmed positive did in fact pass away today. We're saddened to hear about this and we offer condolences to the family. As I told you this week, I directed the Ohio Department of Veterans- Governor Mike DeWine: (20:03) As I told you this week, I directed the Ohio Department of Veteran Services to work to test all residents and staff at both state operating and veteran's homes in Sandusky and Georgetown. The latest total numbers from the recent testing were as follows. At the Sandusky home, 28 residents have tested positive and so have five staff members. At the Georgetown home, no positive cases to date. At both facilities, a total of 818 staff and residents have tested negative. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction informed me today that sadly they are mourning the death of another colleague who became ill from COVID-19. Governor Mike DeWine: (20:46) Duane Pete Gannon, 58, had been a corrections officer at the Correction Reception Center in Orient since July of 2010. He'd been off work with symptoms of the virus since April 20th and he later tested positive for COVID-19. Our thoughts are with his family and with his friends and with his colleagues. BWC will begin distributing at least two million face coverings to Ohio employers who are covered by BWC. Now these will be for the use of employees. As businesses and companies begin to reopen, it's vitally important to keep employees and customers safe. Governor Mike DeWine: (21:35) Many of the advisory boards who have helped us with the various plans on reopening emphasized the importance of employees worrying face coverings. Employers who are covered by BWC, including public and private employers that participate in the state insurance fund will receive a package from BWC containing at least 50 phase coverings. These packages will be shipped in batches beginning this Wednesday, May 20th. These masks are funded through BWC's existing budget and will not impact premiums. I'd like to encourage companies and employees to not throw away any extra face coverings that they receive, that they won't be using. Governor Mike DeWine: (22:18) If you receive more than you need, we ask you to share them with others in your communities who may also need them. As more businesses reopen, the administrator, Stephanie McLeod, and I will continue to monitor and identify possible ways to continue providing assistance to Ohio businesses throughout the state. As Dr. Acton and our team of experts have said, these phase coverings are very important. They help protect others. Lieutenant Governor. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (22:58) Thank you very much, Governor. Good afternoon. Got one thing that I want to emphasize as we are focused on the reopening and then I'm going to do a little history lesson and some context. But May the 26th, next Tuesday, BMVs across the state will be open. However, the one thing that we're trying to prevent is everybody rushing out to the BMV on Tuesday, thinking that they have to be there, that they have to renew their license, and then creating the problem of not being able to handle everybody at the BMV, creating crowding, spacing, and those issues. The last thing that we want to have happen. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (23:44) So this is a reminder that most things that you need from the BMV, you can do online. Go to bmv.ohio.gov and go to the online services tab and you will see all of the things available through that service that you will be able to get through, be able to accomplish online. If you have a driver's license or an ID card that is expired, remember it is still valid because we were able to, with the help of the legislature, get that grace period extended through this emergency. So don't worry about that. Don't feel that you have to run out and do this on Tuesday just because the BMV is open. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (24:32) So again, encouraging people to use the online resources. If you do plan on going, use the get in line online tool so that you know how long the wait is, and you can space that out and not have to go there all at once. So these are a couple of things that we want to emphasize as we move toward that opening a week from today, I guess it is. Additionally, the governor announced some changes today in how we want people to, how we're loosening in restrictions and allowing people to have more responsibility in how they conduct their lives. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (25:18) And it reminded me as we were discussing this this morning of the context. Because a lot of times we get asked questions, well, why are you doing things this particular way? And I want to take a moment to try to explain how far this has all evolved in just two months. Because I remember the first time I talked to the governor actually about the idea of closing down the Arnold Sports Festival, which was really the first act that we took and it seemed so abrupt to me. It seemed like, what are we doing? And then we sat and we talked with the health officials because we know what we were up against. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (25:58) None of us did. Nobody in the world, nobody at the national level or at the state level really knew what we were facing. The most important thing we can do at that point is to listen to the experts, to take the health advice. And they urged immediate action to stop large gatherings and so many aspects of our life slowed or stopped completely. We didn't know. We didn't know what we didn't know at that point in time. The strategy worked. The curve was smashed. We had in Ohio fewer fatalities than other states in our proximity who didn't take the early action. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (26:40) But even though that was a success, there were still over 1,700 people in Ohio who've lost their lives and tens of thousands who have been sickened by COVID-19, and it's still very much a threat in our lives. But since March, since those early days, we've learned a lot about how to manage our risk individually and collectively. Health professionals have learned more, businesses have learned more, public officials have learned more and nobody has all the answers. And sometimes even those answers are not clear. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (27:20) But without a vaccine, we concluded pretty early on that we're going to have to learn to live with COVID-19 in our lives and we had to develop strategies and protocols as to how we were going to do that, that we must learn to manage that risk individually and collectively. As been said during this 2:00 news conference many times by the governor, myself, Dr. Acton, action to open things up has a risk. We also know that inaction, failure to act also has risks, in terms of not only people's mental health and other aspects of their health, but also to the economy and to our society. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (28:04) It's always been our goal to use the best possible information we could find to strike that balance and to do it at a very fast pace and try to build the confidence that we were making the right decisions by you, the people of the state of Ohio, and we were able to develop working with businesses and health. It was a fascinating process to hear the health officials talk about what worked best, to hear business people talk about what worked best with the goal of keeping employees and customers safe and to rebuild confidence. And over that period throughout all those discussions, starting in early May, we began to open things up. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (28:49) And looking at the most recent data that I was able to glean, by the end of May with everything that's coming online, about 95% of the Ohio economy, private economy will open. And basically this was either at the same pace or faster than most of our bordering states. Today with the further loosening of restrictions on the stay at home order and the travel requirements in our personal lives, we are taking another step and we will work to deliver more of these things. We hopefully will have some more things on Thursday to talk with you about. But as we resume these activities, the success of this phase, the true success of this phase depends on that individual and collective responsibility. I think about it from a health point of view. We just are adding some health advisories to our lives because we know that we always hear we should eat healthy, we should exercise and we should get adequate amount of sleep. What we're really adding to that list is we want people to distance and disinfect and wear a mask when you can. And what do we know about both of those pieces of advice is the more people do it, the healthier we will collectively be. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (30:14) And it is our job as public officials to give you the best information that we can on how you can reduce your risk. That's what health officials do. That's what your public leaders do. How can we inform you with the best possible advice and the best rules and regulations that we can to find that balance, to keep you healthy. And what all of these things that we've been doing are about reducing that risk for you, for businesses, for employees, customers in our society. And we're now at that phase where our goal is frankly to just continue to educate and persuade all of our fellow Ohioans to do the right thing by each other. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (30:57) Ultimately, it will be up to each one of us to do that. And we have tried to make informed health, safety, and economic policies and recommendations as we go through this and we will continue to do that as we are going to face the threat of this virus for some time. But in the end, no order and no law will be as successful as a well-informed public who simply cares and respects each other. And as we stand here today, that's our collective mission for all of us in Ohio as we move forward. Governor. Governor Mike DeWine: (31:39) I think we're ready for questions. Speaker 3: (31:49) When it came to reopening the economy, you've said that you prefer a statewide policy as opposed to a county by county opening. You've also said, and you said it yesterday, that you're willing to pull back, start closing things down again, if things don't go well. Does that mean that any re-closing of business would also occur on a statewide basis rather than be hotspot specific? Governor Mike DeWine: (32:17) Well, that's a very good question. I don't think we know the answer to that. I hope we never get to that question. As we have said, local health departments have the ability to issue more restrictive orders. Whatever they are finding that's local, that's unique to them, maybe because they're in a city, maybe because they're in a certain part of the state. So they have the opportunity to do that and that's true right now. That has been true throughout this. So I hope we don't get to the point where we have to pull back. Governor Mike DeWine: (32:56) We've seen that happen in several European countries where they started, they closed and they were able to open all excitement and then they're starting to close back again. So what we do in the next few weeks is going to really determine exactly where we are. The numbers that we show you on the screen every day are the numbers that we look at. We're looking at every number we can get our hands on, and we're trying to see if the trend line is going the wrong way. And there's a lot of variables out there, but the most important variable is what Ohioans do over the next few weeks. Governor Mike DeWine: (33:37) We're trying to do all the other things we can do, ramping up testing, ramping up tracing, making sure the PPE is out to everybody. Those are things that we have the responsibility for, but Ohioans ultimately are going to determine how much social distancing there is, how much spread there is. And that's going to determine where we're able to go. And I would just repeat something that I just said in the statement because I feel so strongly about it, that our ability to recover economically is tied at the hip to the whole issue about public safety and public health. Governor Mike DeWine: (34:17) You cannot separate the two. And if one goes down, the other's going to go down. So if the health is going down, no matter what order we issue, a don't order, don't issue, it's not going to help. So these are just tied like that together. And I think everyone needs to kind of get that as we move forward. Speaker 3: (34:42) Thank you. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (34:42) May I add to that, understand that the adequate testing is not something we had until recently, so that's not a strategy that we could deploy earlier on when you're looking at a statewide policy versus local issues. So the fact that we have testing now and tracing, and that will continue to improve will help mitigate hotspots, and that's the hope. Ben Schwartz: (35:10) Hello. Ben Schwartz with WCPO in Cincinnati. Governor DeWine, WCPO is still receiving a whole lot of questions, or really just concerns from viewers who have still not received any unemployment and haven't really heard from the unemployment offices at all. I know I've asked about this before, and I've been told that your administration's working hard on it. But I want to ask if there's any message for these people who are fed up and frustrated? It's been a couple months at this point and with the economy starting to open back up, if any changes could be coming? Governor Mike DeWine: (35:50) Well, the message is I apologize. We're very sorry. The people who are working there, there's now up to, I think, about 1,600 are working at this every single day. But that does not lessen the pain of not getting that check. That is not lessen the aggravation when you're on the phone and you're trying to get through. So, we're going to continue to focus on this. And again, I apologize for those who have not gotten it yet. Jon, you probably have, I don't know if you have recent numbers on that or what you have. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (36:29) Yeah. Well, the best, and first let me just say to Ben and to your viewers and people asking those questions, it weighs heavily on us. Because while we can empathize with the situation that they're in, if you are without a job and you're waiting to get your unemployment benefits, it's a very scary and unsettling time, and that is not lost on us and we understand that, Director Hall understands that and a staff understands how much we collectively want to serve all of those customers as quickly as we can. They have processed payments and resolved over 91% of the cases that they have so far. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (37:21) But if you're part of that 9%, that's still a large number of people. That's still tens of thousands of people who have not had their issues resolved and they are working diligently to get that done. I see the data come in. It's getting better. It's still not where it needs to be just because of the volume of both claims that have to be processed and questions that have to be answered and the accountability, that muscle must also be incorporated into that process to make sure that we're not paying out dollars for people who are not eligible for them. Lt. Governor Jon Husted: (37:57) And Director Hall continues to push for both the tech reforms and the person and putting people to work on solving these problems. But it's not lost on us, the personal impact it's having on people's lives and we push seven days a week to try to get them served. Ben Schwartz: (38:17) Thank you both very much. Molly Martinez: (38:23) Hi. This is Molly Martinez with Spectrum News. Lieutenant Governor, you just said something poignant. You said, no law will be as effective as a well-informed public. But this weekend we saw crowded bars, we saw packed restaurants, we saw patios, we saw really people who have information willfully ignoring it. My question is either for the governor and lieutenant governor. Is there any concern that we are putting too much faith that people will do the right thing when we've seen example after example that they are choosing not to? Governor Mike DeWine: (38:57) No, I don't think so. I mean, Ohioans have demonstrated in the last two months that they will use their common sense. They will do what needs to be done. I think my life experience with Ohioans, I think we're a practical people. I think we're people who just roll up our sleeves and do what we need to do every day. And that's what we're simply asking Ohioans to do as we continue this. Look, were there some things this past weekend that we didn't want to see? Absolutely. But the story is I get it reported to me from around the state from county after county is that by and large restaurants were doing a good job, bars were doing a good job. Governor Mike DeWine: (39:48) Most Ohioans when they went into one of those establishments were keeping a distance that they should have kept. Part of this is kind of a learning curve. One of the messages that we're having to bars is you own it- Governor Mike DeWine: (40:03) One of the messages that we're having to bars is you own it, you control it. You need to make sure that people are doing what they need to do. For the few of the patrons who maybe are paying no attention, I would just appeal to them again, "Pay attention." Because you may not worry about your life. You may not worry that you're going to catch anything, but we got a lot of Ohioans who are walking around who have the virus and don't know they have it and are spreading it to others and you don't want to be in a position of killing your grandmother or killing someone that you love or someone you don't even know. Governor Mike DeWine: (40:40) This is serious business. This is not something that ... We've gotten through. We have a long way to go and we will get through this. Every one of us wants to get through this on the other side and be there when we can open everything back up and we're going to baseball games and we're going to see our grandkids and we're doing everything that we want to be able to do, but you got to be alive to do that. Then, so that's, I guess, just my message to those who are maybe last weekend were having a good time. Nothing wrong with having a good time, but maybe were not as cautious as they should have been. John. John: (41:21) Thanks, Governor, Molly. Reiterating, most people have done this right. We squashed the curve and avoided thousands of deaths that we otherwise would have had if people hadn't followed the rules and done this right. We have little choice but to trust people. A civil society, frankly, depends on public trust. It just does. At this phase a point I was trying to make is that we want to hopefully educate, persuade, maybe even inspire on occasion people to do the right thing by each other. John: (42:09) That's not just true now, a great society of ... A thriving society is dependent upon public trust with each other. That's what our economy is based on. That's what most things that we do in life are based on is that trust and we want to build trust in this process, not violate it. Enforcement has been a very rarely used tool in this entire process. It was only for egregious situations that enforcement has ever been thought of as a tool to do this. Public trust has been at the foundation of all the success that we've had thus far. Molly: (42:50) Thank you. Jack Windsor: (42:54) Jack Windsor, WMFD-TV Mansfield. My question is for the Governor. Governor, when you consider that since April 15th, 67% of deaths attributed to coronavirus are in long-term care facilities and once we go back before the 15th, that number will be even larger. Seniors in congregate settings account for less than 1% of our population, but yet are overwhelmingly the most effected. Governor, is it time to ditch focus on things like contact tracing, bars and restaurants and whether or not kids can chew gum on a baseball field and to focus time, energy and money more on solving the problem in our long-term care facilities? Governor Mike DeWine: (43:38) Well Jack, we've talked about this before and we know that the most vulnerable members of our 11.7 million Ohioans are those who are older or those who have a physical problem. We talked about diabetes. We talked about obesity, other things. We know statistically that these are the most vulnerable members of our society. But we also know that someone can be a carrier and they can carry that to someone who has more vulnerability. Governor Mike DeWine: (44:25) We also know and we've seen on the screen, you saw it yesterday and the day before people who were not that old, not very old, who told you about, and told the people of the state of Ohio about their hospital stay, two months to hospital stay on their back yesterday. I would not minimize that. I would not minimize what that does to someone's life when for two months they're in a hospital. They live and so it shouldn't be just the deaths that we count. It should be the lives disrupted, the lives changed. Those include people of all ages. Governor Mike DeWine: (45:08) That doesn't mean we shouldn't concentrate on the old people who have a physical problem. I mean, if you look at the order that we issued today, we have a separate section where we talk about people who are the most vulnerable and with special cautions to those individuals. At this point as we deal with this virus, people are going to have to sort out in their own mind how they deal with it themselves. But you cannot get beyond the fact that everybody can be a carrier. I don't know how this pandemic compares to other viruses, but at least with this one, we got a lot of people out there who are not showing symptoms who are carrying this virus and who are spreading it and they don't even know it. Again, caution for everyone is I think the most important thing. Jack Windsor: (46:05) Your order on May 14th, though, if I remember correctly said that those who were symptomatic were most likely to spread. But now what you're saying is that the asymptomatic are spreading. That seems to collide. Can you clarify? Governor Mike DeWine: (46:22) I don't recall if we said that, Jack, but we continue to learn. We continue to get data. If you look at the data we got out of when we checked prisoners, we tested prisoners. Those were just stunning numbers of how many prisoners. We knew exactly that they did not show a symptom because we were watching them every day. They were in prison and they showed no signs and you had a large number of the people who tested positive, the large number ... the people who tested positive had absolutely no signs, none. We've learned. We continue to evolve and we continue to learn. What we do is we try to continue to share that with you as we learn that. Kevin Landers: (47:07) Kevin Landers, WBNS-TV. Thank you, Governor. The wedding businesses in Ohio have been severely impacted financially by COVID-19. As we approached the peak of the wedding season, your administration hasn't given a lot of guidance as to when wedding venues can reopen to allow more than 10 people and many have canceled their weddings and these businesses, including caterers, want to know where does the state have to be in terms of the number of cases or deaths on the spectrum in order for them to reopen? In that same vein, can people with overnight surgeries soon be allowed to schedule appointments anytime soon? Thank you. Governor Mike DeWine: (47:46) Well, the latter part, latter question, we're continuing to check with hospitals. Look, we depend on hospitals, the data in regard to PPE and what impact the surgeries are having on them. But also we have to look at the PPE generally, not just in regard to hospitals. We're going to continue to look at that. When we get to the point where we think it's safe to do that, we're certainly going to do it. I mean, anybody who's got anything serious, even if they spend the night, they can certainly get that done today. What we're talking about is elective surgeries that are not ... When someone is not spending the night, they can do it. If someone has to spend the night, then it's a question of only those that are necessary at that point in time. We've opened it quite a bit. There's a little bit more to go. We're going to keep looking at that. Governor Mike DeWine: (48:46) The other part of your question had to do with weddings and as I recall, our order weddings are exempt, funerals are exempt. In other words, while we ask people to practice social distancing and Fran, I've been to two funerals, unfortunately, two funerals in the last 10 days, I think, and where people were practicing that social distancing were doing a phenomenal job, but they are not covered by any order that we have issued. What was covered is wedding receptions. We have been contacted by people who cater, for example, who've said, "Look, if we can replicate what the standards are in a restaurant, is that good enough? Can people have wedding reception if it replicates what we find in a restaurant?" Governor Mike DeWine: (49:44) We are looking at that. It would seem to me that makes sense. We're going to, again, try to work out those details and we should have something shortly as far as advisory in regard to that. Again, when people ask the question or they look to us for these ... we always come back to distance. Is the distance kept because the distance is the key. In what you worry about, whether it's at a bar. At the bars we worry about the congregation of people standing up close together. You may see that any kind of gathering, that's the concern. That's why in regard to the bars and restaurants, what the order says is you got to have tables and people are assigned to a table. They sit at a table. So, you can build in your social distancing then. It would seem that you could do the same thing with a wedding reception. Kevin Landers: (50:49) Thank you. Laura Hancock: (50:53) Hello, Governor. This is Laura Hancock with cleveland.com. I'm seeking clarification on what you announced today with Ohioans, protecting Ohioans. Is this an order with criminal penalties or is this just a health advisory with no criminal penalties? Is somebody going to need to sign it? Where's Dr. Acton today? Governor Mike DeWine: (51:18) Dr. Acton was not feeling well today. I found that out as I was coming in because I had talked to her earlier today. It is an order, but as you could tell from the order, most of that is really an advisory. It is what we call an urgent health advisory. We're serious about it. It's important. People need to listen to it, but as we have evolved and again, I think it's important to go back quickly. When we started the initial order, we had no orders on in regard to how business conducted business, today we do. Today we do with barbershops, today we do with hair salons. We do with restaurants, we do with other retail. All those over two months, those have been developed and are in place, so people should feel safer. They can be out. Governor Mike DeWine: (52:20) The requirement of a mask. I know sometimes people look at me and say, "Well, you guys didn't have that requirement a while ago." Well, we didn't have it when we were closed. We got more medical information, but also we're now in a situation where we're opening up again. That added protection makes make sense. Governor Mike DeWine: (52:41) Most of what, Laura, most of what I talked about today is just very serious advice and where we're asking people to use the best information they can get and to be as safe as they can and to protect other people, which is really the ... I think if there's a message today, it is we all have a moral obligation to protect others and this is a time in our history when we have the opportunity to really, really do that. What we do is not all about us. It's not all about me exercising my individual freedom. You can do it, but it seems to me from what's right and what's wrong is we have an obligation, each of us, to protect other people when we have that opportunity to do it. During this virus, we really have the opportunity to do that. Laura Hancock: (53:39) Is just the business aspect of it punishable second degree misdemeanor and the rest of it's not, is that what you're saying? Governor Mike DeWine: (53:48) Any part that is an order is an order and carries with it the penalties, potential penalties. I mean look, we have not looked to be charging people with offenses here. If you go back and look at the history for the last two months, but Ohioans have certainly complied. There are things that have, as we've made exceptions to the stay-at-home order, we have layered on requirements and they're requirements that were not there before. So yes, those have the force of an order. A lot of this that I read today is not an order. We're asking and we're trying to give people the best science that we can and giving them the best recommendations we can so they can protect other people. Laura Hancock: (54:40) Thank you. Tara Morgan: (54:45) Good afternoon. This is Tara Morgan with ABC6 News. Could you provide an update on contact tracers and the job search? I understand from the website that there are no longer taking applications, that they received an overwhelming response. Can you discuss a little bit about that and when things will get moving? Governor Mike DeWine: (55:04) Sure and let me just pause for a moment. This tracing is very, very important. I was on the phone talking to health departments all over the state this morning and I told them how important tracing is. They already knew that. But what I said is, "Look, we're committed to continue to increase the testing and we're doing it as fast as we can and it will continue to increase." As we are doing that, we have to at the same time, stand up a fairly significant number, 1700, 1800 tracers around the state. Our goal is to hire at least, at least 100 at the state level. I think we've hired 60. Most of them are in some training now and what we're doing at the state level is to try to surge in if there is a hot spot somewhere and let's say in a Brown County and they don't have the ability to handle that, we want to be able to on the tracing part, surge people in there. Governor Mike DeWine: (56:08) The rest of the hires though, are hires that are being done at the local county level. I don't have numbers on those, but we will have those shortly because I'm asking my team to get me those numbers so we can see how we are doing. We're taking some of the federal money, we're putting it out to local health departments, we're hiring people. Again, this is something that is really important as we look to the next, where we'll go in the next few months in our ability to search out the virus, to separate it, stop it. That depends on tracing. Again, tracing is probably as old as ... It goes back, probably at least to the plagues or the Middle Ages. It's a basic concept. Now we have testing to go with it, but it's not a new concept or a new practice. Tara Morgan: (57:01) Thank you. Governor Mike DeWine: (57:02) Terry. No? Luis Gil: (57:06) Hello, Governor. This is Luis Gil with Ohio Latino TV. Thank you very much for your leadership and I'm sorry. I don't mean any disrespect with this question, but from the very beginning you have asked Ohioans to work together, for patience, to be together on this and together we get through it. As this past weekend opened up the restaurants and some businesses, obviously there were some violators and when they were visit, the inspectors or the officers did not go there on a friendly, patient, let's work together. As a matter of fact, during the news, they had threatened to take their licenses and so on. How is this going to work out together when the industry, the special restaurants and bars has been through quite a bit. Is this going to be part of the history on their organization? Governor Mike DeWine: (58:07) Well, I think it's going to work out well. I think if you look at what happened last weekend, the first weekend we saw this, most restaurants did fine. Most bars did fine. Those who didn't do fine were going to chalk it up to a learning process and assume that they're going to get it right as they get crowds on Friday and Saturday and Sunday and Monday. Governor Mike DeWine: (58:32) Now, is there going to be enforcement? Well, sure there's going to be enforcement. There's always enforcement. I mean, the local health departments, one things they do is regulate restaurants. One of things they do is regulate bars. Our special investigators out of the Department of Public Service, they go out every weekend and they're out there and they'll be out there again this coming weekend. As I told law enforcement, I had a phone call with law enforcement this morning around ... some of the representatives of law enforcement agencies actually. One things I said was, "Look, we hope to have a quiet weekend. We hope you don't have to issue any citations at all." But if somebody is not controlling the environment there and we're going to hold the people who own the bars and who owns the restaurants, all of them, ultimately accountable. The idea will be to work with them, but they've got to get control of the situation if the situation is out of control. It's just as simple as that. It's not fair to all the other bars and all the other restaurants that are complying, trying to do a good job, trying to serve their customers, if you have an outlier that is not doing what they should be doing. Luis Gil: (59:54) Thank you, Governor. Shane Stegmiller: (01:00:01) Hi, Governor. This is Shane Stegmiller with Hannah News Service. Shane Stegmiller: (01:00:03) Hi Governor, this is Shane Stegmiller with Hannah News Service with you easing your travel restrictions in today's order, can you talk about what it means, what you would say for families who are considering doing some kind of summer vacation or traveling for the upcoming holiday weekend? What this means today? Governor Mike DeWine: (01:00:21) I think that it simply means use your common sense and a lot of different variables. This COVID virus is in every state, some more than others. You know, I think that I would watch as I went, I would watch who I interact with. I would try to keep that interaction to a minimum. It's just basic common sense. If you have, obviously, if you have someone in your household, who's at a high risk, you're going to look at things differently than if you don't have someone in your household with a high risk. Jon worked on this. Jon, you got anything else to add to that? Jon Husted: (01:01:10) You know, no. I mean, one of the things, remember how the old order looked? Old order requested or asked people to self quarantine if they left the state and returned, and that no longer will be in the order. Governor Mike DeWine: (01:01:25) That was an ask at that point. Jon Husted: (01:01:28) Yeah, it was an ask. Governor Mike DeWine: (01:01:29) It was never an order. Jon Husted: (01:01:30) We were asking people to do that. Because remember when that started, that started back when we had people that were taking spring breaks and they were coming back to Ohio. We had other states, Michigan, New York, where we were having people where that was really bad, who were coming into Ohio. So that travel requirement, travel request was really to try to mitigate that circumstance. But we've gotten past that. We know that people are headed into summer vacation time and Memorial Day weekend. And so we get that. But whether you're in Ohio or out of Ohio, the same general advice exists that we want people to distance. Jon Husted: (01:02:14) You should keep to your own group of people that you're commonly interacting with. You want to disinfect, you want to wash your hands and you want to wear a mask if you're around other people where the spread could occur. So it's just those common sense things that we've always done. And as the threat of the travel to Ohio from other places is lessened, it makes sense to move away from that provision and allow people to, again, begin to resume more of the normal things they would do with the constant reminder that coronavirus can be a threat in your lives and in the lives of your loved ones. So please take precautions. Shane Stegmiller: (01:02:52) And just to clarify, you're not asking people to quarantine when they come back now. Jon Husted: (01:02:59) No. Governor Mike DeWine: (01:03:00) No. Not unless ... Look, again, it's kind of the basics. They're carrying a fever if they're showing signs. Absolutely. But that's true of anyone we're asking anyone to quarantine. So if you come back and you're sick you would be, but if you come back and feel okay, then no, we're not asking people to do that. Shane Stegmiller: (01:03:25) Thank you, governor. Julie Carr Smyth: (01:03:30) Hi, Governor. Julie Carr Smyth from the Associated Press. Yesterday, Dr. Acton said that you have a whole team of people who are going to be testing at all the nursing homes. And we've seen the president direct people to do mass nursing home testing. He said that on May 11th. You have expressed some reservations about whether we are able to do that. Could you talk about what we are and aren't going to be able to do in the nursing homes? Governor Mike DeWine: (01:04:06) I mean, you saw what we did at the two veterans homes and the National Guard was involved in one of those. General Harris is standing up a group of at least 10 units that will be involved in the next few days and beginning to test at nursing homes. In addition to that, we are reaching out to our three regions and our partners in those three regions with the different hospitals and major hospitals to take the lead in those nursing homes as well. So we'll have more details in the next few days, which we will share with you as soon as we get them. What we want to do is to have testing and certainly in nursing homes and what we were doing testing in nursing home, where there's someone who shows signs that they have COVID-19, then the tracing needs to occur. Governor Mike DeWine: (01:05:12) So you're doing tracing, at the same time you're doing the testing. And of course tracing if it's a staff member, then the tracing obviously is out into the community, as well as in the nursing home. If it's someone who's a resident of the nursing home, then you certainly at least start there. And that's where that will be. So the testing and the tracing have to go together. Taking the data from the tracing is, excuse me, from the testing is very important. So we are in the process and this is why increasing testing is so very important. We're a lot better off than we were. We're not where we should be. Not where we want to be, but we're working on that to increase that. We're up to, I didn't look at yesterday's numbers, but we've been averaging and somewhat over 9,000 for the last few days. That's better than we were the previous week. Better than we were the previous week, but it's not where we want to be. Governor Mike DeWine: (01:06:18) So we're going to continue to ramp that up. So the summary is in regard to nursing homes, any kind of group care, they are our priority because we know how fast something can spread. And this is a very vulnerable, by and large, very vulnerable population. Every state's got the same problem. If you look at numbers of every state, and when I talk to my fellow governors, we all just talk about the nursing homes and what else that we can do. So we're going to push the testing as hard as we can in these nursing homes. And I think in the next seven days, we know we're going to be able to report to you a lot more progress in that area. And we're going to continue to do that. So we'll keep you informed as these things move forward, but that is where we are today. Julie Carr Smyth: (01:07:13) I appreciate it. Jackie Borchardt: (01:07:16) This is Jackie Borchardt from the Cincinnati Inquirer. Governor, you said all along that you're making these decisions on the advice of experts and the best science. So my question is what is the science behind these changes that you're announcing today and why today? Governor Mike DeWine: (01:07:37) Well, I guess the way I would look at this is what we're issuing today kind of catches up the order from what the reality has been. We started with an order two months ago that did allow people to go out, limited, but allow them to go out for certain reasons. Once we started opening back Ohio, in every case, the science is that we put in place the best practices that we could come up with. The best practices for hair, the best practices for retail, the best practices for manufacturing. In each one of those cases, we put orders in, but we also then obviously with retail and restaurants and bars and salons and all of those things that carved a new exception to the travel, to the stay at home order, a new exception, new exception, new exception. Governor Mike DeWine: (01:08:42) So you get to this point and yet you look at it and the original order, wasn't really where we were. And so what we wanted to do, because I think a lot of this is for people to see what we're doing and have confidence in what we're doing, whether they agree with it or not at least to see what we're doing and see that we're trying to be consistent. And so now was the time after these openings and these orders have been issued about things that will open up shortly to really take this order and turn it into something that is spot on in regard to where we are. I've been very open about where we are. I mean, this R naught number is important one to one, when it starts to get higher we're going to start worrying if it does. If it gets lower, obviously we'll be very, very relieved. Governor Mike DeWine: (01:09:41) So we're going to watch that number. We're going to watch the hospitalization number, we're going to watch the case number. Hospitalization number, I always find to be it's a lagger as far as an indicator, but it's also something that I think to me is pretty accurate about where we are. Cases dependent to a lot of extent on how much testing you're doing. So, as we do more testing, we're going to see the more cases go up. But the hospitalization is an important number. So all these numbers we're going to look at, and we're going to continue to follow that science. And this is why I urge Ohioans to continue to distance, continue to wear a mask now. As we open up Ohio, we didn't have Ohio opened up before now, put the mask on, because we need that extra protection and we're going to monitor how we're doing. And it's basically how we come out of this is going to depend on a lot of different things. But part of it is how well we continue to do the social distancing. Jackie Borchardt: (01:10:40) A quick clarification [crosstalk 01:10:42] Jon Husted: (01:10:42) Can I add a piece that, that I want to emphasize Jackie? We've learned a lot from the very beginning when this all hit, we didn't have access to PPE or masks or an adequate supply of hand sanitizer. We didn't have the two months of experience of businesses operating where they have been able to successfully do so without having spreads in the workplace. And so now that you have that experience and that information, and know what best practices work, you could have a lot more confidence in these new decisions that we're making. And that also is an important factor when we're developing these work groups and coming to these conclusions. Jackie Borchardt: (01:11:27) Governor, real quick, you mentioned R naught, is that a figure that you're able to look at within say the last few days of time, because the chart that was shown yesterday showed that it's basically up until about two weeks ago. Governor Mike DeWine: (01:11:42) I don't know the answer to that. I don't know what lag time there is on that. I'll find out though. Jackie Borchardt: (01:11:47) Thank you. Randy Ludlow: (01:11:50) Good afternoon, Governor, Randy Ludlow with the Columbus Dispatch. Since apparently the order will not be issued today or advisory or whatever you want to call it, will not be available today in writing and a lot of confusion remains, at least as evidenced by readers and my editors to clarify a couple of things. Coronavirus precautions placed on businesses previously remain in place, correct? Governor Mike DeWine: (01:12:19) Coronavirus [crosstalk 01:12:22] remained in fact on. Absolutely. Absolutely. Randy Ludlow: (01:12:26) Okay. And the restriction on mass gathering still applies to individuals, correct? Governor Mike DeWine: (01:12:36) Yes. With the exception of anything that has been carved out. Randy Ludlow: (01:12:40) Right. [crosstalk 00:01:12:42]. Governor Mike DeWine: (01:12:43) And so, you may have something as we move forward and we're going to continue, we're going to continue to look at that particular number and see what is the right number. But for now that number remains. Randy Ludlow: (01:12:56) So I cannot have a party with 500 of my closest friends at my house on Memorial Day. Governor Mike DeWine: (01:13:05) Are you buying? Are you ... We could change the order. Randy Ludlow: (01:13:09) Governor, I remind you [crosstalk 01:13:11] Governor Mike DeWine: (01:13:11) It's a joke, Randy. No, the answer's no, you can't do it. Randy Ludlow: (01:13:13) Okay. Thank you. Jim Otte: (01:13:20) Jim Otte from WHIO TV in Dayton. Thank you, Governor. On behalf of our many viewers, I wanted to ask about two issues. County fairs, you must be getting close to a decision on what's going to happen with county fairs and then bowling centers, a classic non-contact sport or activity. Are you close to making a decision on either one of those? Governor Mike DeWine: (01:13:45) We'll have something shortly on both of those, Jim. I mean, we have certainly talked a lot about the fairs, county fairs. No one loves a fair more than I do. And you know, the importance of county fairs is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the important things besides as community gathering, but it really is a chance for people in the agricultural community to get together. But it's a chance mostly though, for kids to compete, to show what they've done, to take their project out and display that project, whether that's livestock or whether that is a photography or some electrical project, a rocket project, all kinds. I'm just thinking of different things that are our kids have had. So what we would hope is that we can figure out a way to preserve that part of the fair. Governor Mike DeWine: (01:14:45) The challenge is obvious. We've made it real clear and the science would indicate that the last thing that you could put back in place is a mass gathering of people, people who are crowded together. I've been to every fair in this state one time or the other. And there's some just amazing fairs, but part of the allure, or part of, I guess, what we like about fairs is they're crowded. And there a lot of people coming together. And so, we worry, deeply worry about the spread that would come about, and there's no indication that we're not going to be continuing to deal with this COVID, it's still here. So those are the concerns. Those are the things we're thinking about. We'll have more when we do. Jim Otte: (01:15:37) Thank you, governor. Andy Chow: (01:15:41) Hi, Governor, Andy Chow with Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau, I'm told I'm the last question. Yesterday, Ohio was operating under a public health order. Sounds like today, we're going to be operating under a health advisory. What tangible difference do you see Ohioans acting between what they did yesterday to what they'll do today and into the future? Governor Mike DeWine: (01:16:06) Great question. And I think the answer is virtually nothing. And I think there was a concern raised, people said to us, "Look," and we looked at this ourselves and we looked at it. We said the order that we're still operating under, the stay at home order does not match what we have done in the orders that we've issued since the original order. And so as far as what people do, the only huge difference, I guess, but it's really not much of a difference because the travel was a request anyway. I mean, it was never a order that had any enforcement in law or that we actually ordered people. The travel advisory was to be careful about it. And we would ask people not to do it. So there's not a whole lot really of change. Governor Mike DeWine: (01:16:55) Again, it gives us the opportunity, it gives me the opportunity and Dr. Acton and the Lieutenant Governor to again, say, "Look, this is really, now, it's been evolving. This is really in the hands of the people in the state of Ohio." And it kind of confirms that. And that's okay because that's the way should be. The people that state of Ohio have done a great, great job. I'm getting the sign from Eric we need to go. Jon, 30 seconds. Jon Husted: (01:17:21) Yeah, quickly, Andy, to help you out with that question. We really, the stay at home order technically said you had to stay at home other than these exceptions. Now it essentially is going to say it's recommended, but not required. Okay. Most people were not staying at home, there were a whole list of things that they were doing. Moves it from required to recommended. And then the travel request that asked people to self-quarantine that will no longer be asking them to self-quarantine just on the basis of travel, unless they have symptoms or COVID themselves. So those are the major pieces, trying to clarify that for you. Andy Chow: (01:17:57) Thank you. Governor Mike DeWine: (01:18:00) So tomorrow is my bride's birthday. Happy birthday Francis, my long, long time girlfriend. So going back to seventh grade. Happy birthday. We're going to close today with students from the Bowling Green State University's College of Music performing You Will Be Found, a song in the musical Dear Evan Hansen. This was played during Bowling Green's virtual celebration for spring graduation this past Saturday. Let's listen. Governor Mike DeWine: (01:18:35) (singing) Governor Mike DeWine: (01:18:41) That's great. Thanks to Bowling Green. We will not be here tomorrow. We will see you all Thursday at 2:00. Thank you very much.