Ohio Governor Mike DeWine Press Conference Transcript October 19

Gov. Mike DeWine: (00:00) Hey everybody. Crew: (00:00) How's it going Governor Gov. Mike DeWine: (00:42) Good, how are you? Crew: (00:42) Oh, you know. Gov. Mike DeWine: (00:43) Haven't seen you for a while. Crew: (00:44) [inaudible 00:00:44] in a while. Gov. Mike DeWine: (00:45) I thought you retired. Crew: (00:48) No, not with you still in office. Gov. Mike DeWine: (00:52) No? I won't make a smart comments then. All right, I think you all are back far enough and I'm back far enough, at least, so I'll take my great lakes mask off here. The place set? Crew: (01:07) [inaudible 00:01:08]. Gov. Mike DeWine: (01:07) Well, good afternoon everyone, thank you for being here. I wanted to come today to talk directly to the people of Cleveland area, Northeast Ohio, and report exactly where we are in regard to the virus. And people of Northeast Ohio, early spring, we were able to flatten the curve, we're able keep this virus down. We saw it spring back up June and July, we saw at that time cases go up significantly at the same time that we saw hospitalizations go up and they were tracking. And at that time we asked people to wear a mask and we've put an order on in regard to the red counties. At that time, the red counties were primarily the urban counties, but at that time we saw a significant increase in the number of people wearing masks. And when we saw that, we then, shortly after that, started seeing cases go down again. So two different times people have stepped up and done what they needed to do here in Ohio and in Northeast Ohio. Gov. Mike DeWine: (02:44) We are now at a third stage and now what's happened is for the last several weeks we've started to see a real significant increase in the cases. In about two and a half weeks, we've doubled the number of cases from a thousand cases in Ohio to 2000 cases. And at the same time, we've seen the positivity rate almost double. We were down to about 2.5%, we're now pushing on a daily average close to 5%, so we've seen that double. We've seen a real significant spread throughout the state of Ohio, there's red tide, going all over Ohio, really into our rural areas. And so, these are rural counties. So as we try to analyze what's going on, what we see in County Health Department after County Health Department, I talked to the County Health Departments every Monday morning, 7:15 call, I get a report exactly what's going on and they're basically reporting the same things County to County. And that is that the spread is not so much in work places, it's not so much in classrooms, it's not really in college classrooms, we don't think, it's not much in K through 12 classrooms themselves, but it's when people are just doing more casual things, getting together. It's human nature, I think, when we're with friends, we're with family, to let our guard down, and that's really what is happening. Gov. Mike DeWine: (04:58) And what has happening in Ohio, we're seeing across the country, certainly in the Northern States and we're seeing it in Europe and we're seeing it around the world. As Dr. Fauci said over the weekend, though, we have really learned a lot since this virus started. And one of the things he said was, and the other experts tell us is, we've really learned the value of the mask. That these masks, when two people are wearing them really has a great, great ability to cut the spread down. Gov. Mike DeWine: (05:43) So I'm here today to say thank you for what you've done, please wear the masks. Rural counties, we're not seeing the masks wearing is high, we would like to really see it get up. If we could get 85% of the people who are out in public to wear a mask in the state and if we could get people just not to stop what they're doing, but rather to maybe do it differently. And that's what we're going to have to do as we go through this, it will make all the difference in the world. How do I know that? I know it because we saw it in Ohio in July, in the summer, we literally saw a very significant decrease in the cases when mask compliance went up in our urban areas, for example, from I'm guessing 50%, maybe to 85%, 90%, we saw the cases go straight down. And that's what we've got to do again. Gov. Mike DeWine: (06:44) This is a more precarious time for a couple reasons. The experts have told us all along that as it gets colder we're more inside, that there's going to be more spread, and we know that. So it's a bigger challenge. But we truly can turn this around it. And look, I understand people are sick of wearing masks, people are sick of distancing, they're just sick of the whole thing. We can see the end of this, I don't know exactly when the vaccine is going to be available in Ohio, but we're getting ready in Ohio. We're going to put a dashboard up tomorrow where doctors and hospitals and others could sign up where they will be getting the vaccine when it's here. We're ready for it and it will be coming. Gov. Mike DeWine: (07:41) And when it comes, we're going to start with the most vulnerable people. We're going to start nursing homes, we're also going to start with our first responders, and we're going to start with medical people who are literally on the front line. And I think once people see how that goes that people are going to be very willing to have the vaccine, and we're going to reach what the doctors refer to, or the health experts, as the herd immunity. I like community immunity better, since we're not animals. But we're going to have that and that's going to come. And when we get that, we're going to be out of this, but we've got a few months ahead of us where it's going to be tough. And the good news is we can slow this thing down dramatic. Gov. Mike DeWine: (08:33) So wearing a mask, keeping distance, this is how we keep kids in school, this is how we keep kids playing sports, this is how we keep our colleges open. This is how we keep our businesses open by doing this because a huge surge upward that we're to see is going to do nothing good for the economy, it's going to slow things down, it's going to bring about our schools having to go totally remote. And we're already starting to see that in some communities in Ohio, where the virus has risen up, teachers have gotten sick, students have been quarantined and schools have had to pull back and go to a remote. So we can fight this, we have a common enemy, the enemy is the virus. We can keep this virus down, but we just all got to pull together. And so, that's why I'm here today. More than happy to answer any questions. Reporter: (09:40) Governor, you're obviously taking advantage of your megaphone to preach about the necessity of a mask, but you have more tools at your disposal. Have you thought about taking extra steps given your concern that you're laying out right now? Gov. Mike DeWine: (09:54) I'm going to have the same answer that Dr. Fauci had this weekend on 60 minutes when he was asked that question, and he basically said that shutting down the economy is the last thing we want to do and the good news is we don't have to do it. I'm here to tell you, we do not have to shut our economy down. We can do two things at once. And it's not that people have to dramatically change what they're doing, we have to change how we do things and we have to set what our priorities are. And it seems to me, keeping jobs, expanding jobs, keeping kids in school, this is what our priorities are. And if enough of us wear a mask we can get this done. Gov. Mike DeWine: (10:46) So this is a time when truly the people control, the citizens control, really control what the next three months are going to be like. Look, it's not going to be easy, no one says we've known- Governor DeWine: (11:03) Look, it's not going to be easy. No one says. We've known all along when it got cold, when winter came, late fall, that this was going to be tough. I will tell you, even knowing that, I was surprised at the rate of the increase. One of the things that should cause us concern is that unlike the summer, when we saw these cases mostly be among young people, we're seeing the age go up. The other difference between now and summer is, we're seeing the hospitalization go up at faster rate than it did during the summer. We can only assume, or I'm assuming, that's because we're now talking about an older group, so it's different than the summer. This is the third big decision, I could say it that way, that Ohioans are going to have to make, the third big challenge. We can do this. We know how to do it. We've done it before. We know a lot more. The good news is we know a lot more today than we knew when this all started. Speaker 1: (12:16) Governor, because of that rate of increase, we're two weeks out from the election. Are you concerned of it continuing at that rate, so that it might impact the election somehow? Governor DeWine: (12:27) I don't know. I think people are making up their mind. They're voting at a unprecedented level as far as early voting in Ohio. I don't think it's going to. I think what you're saying. Speaker 1: (12:45) [crosstalk 00:00:12:46]. Governor DeWine: (12:45) Yeah, that's right. Will the people will be able to turn out? I don't think so, and here's why. We're blessed in Ohio with a long tradition of voting absentee and voting in person. This weekend, I believe the voting in person hours expand, daily expands and it comes into the weekend, this weekend and next weekend. People have great opportunities to vote. We would just ask them to be careful. When they're standing in line, wear a mask, keep a distance. Secretary LaRose told me he thinks it's possible that we'll have more people vote before Election Day than on Election Day. That's possible. What that will mean, or it should mean is, that we'll have more room, more space, won't be as long wait lines on Election Day. I think it's going well. There's always some glitches. There's always something going on, but I think Ohioans can feel safe in their vote and their ability to vote. Speaker 2: (13:54) You mentioned, attributing the increase to casual dining, casual gatherings. Weekend after weekend, we report on northeast Ohio bars and restaurants who are being cited for not following the 10:00 PM cutoff rule. Are you concerned that these restaurants and bars are not taking this seriously? Governor DeWine: (14:15) Well, I think most people who run restaurants and run bars are doing a good job. You read about the ones that aren't, but for every one that's not, my guess is that the agents investigate another 20 or 30. I'm just guessing those numbers. I see the numbers every week. Most bars, most restaurants are doing a good job. There's certainly some outliers and they're being cited, but it's people who are letting their guard down, and it's very understandable. It's been a tough seven and a half months. I want to spend more time with my grandkids. I want to be able to get closer to my grandkids. Fran and I go over a lot of nights and stand outside, and the kids are outside, and we're able to talk with them. We did it yesterday for some of our other grandkids. Governor DeWine: (15:15) There's ways that we can do this. It's not perfect. It's not what we want. Our daughter, we have two daughters who are going to have babies, one in December, one in November. Two of our daughters got together and had a shower for one of our daughters who is going to have a baby. They did a drive through shower. It was different, but it seemed to work pretty well. Everybody seemed to be okay. A couple people even said, "Hey, that's a great way to have a shower. Let's do all showers like that in the future." Governor DeWine: (15:46) There's just ways of doing this that we can do, but so it's not so much what I'm going to do about shutting something down. It's really about what happens when this spreads out and schools can't put enough teachers in the classroom, or there's too many kids quarantined. These are things. Then people get scared about going out, and they don't go out and shop, or they don't go to a restaurant, or they don't go to a bar. The economy just start really contracting. We don't want to see that. We think we can do two things at once. We know we can do two things at once. That's what I'm asking the people in northeast Ohio to do. It's why I'm here today. Speaker 3: (16:38) [crosstalk 00:16:38] because it's become such a politicized issue with the election coming up, are you at all concerned that, following the election, people may let their guard down, thinking the worst of it is over and along with the election? Even politicians aren't taking as much action on it anymore, because they are frankly not facing any kind of electoral consequences? Governor DeWine: (16:59) No, I don't think it's going to matter. No, I just, I don't think- The coming and going of the election is not going to change the virus. The virus still is our enemy before Election Day and after Election Day. We have a common enemy. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, whoever, this is our common enemy and we got to continue to battle. As I said, the good news is, the end is out there. We can see the end. We just don't know exactly the day it's going to be or the month it's going to be, but it's coming. Speaker 4: (17:33) Vice President Pence will be back in Cincinnati on Wednesday. He was in Columbus last weekend, last week, not very much social distancing, about a third wearing masks that I could see. Should they not be having these rallies in Ohio, given the spike that we're seeing? Governor DeWine: (17:47) Well, our message has been consistent, and whether we're talking to protesters, whether we're talking to any of the political candidates, whether it's for local office or for presidency, and that is, "Be careful." The people who attend those rallies, be careful. Wear a mask. There's really no reason not to wear a mask. This is not an ideological issue. This is a safety issue. This is how you say you love somebody else and you love other people and you want to be helpful to other people and protect them. We would just ask anybody who's going to any event, any event like that, to wear a mask, keep a distance. We can conduct these events. We can conduct these events and be safe, but we got to be careful. We got to be careful. Speaker 5: (18:35) With the 15 days before the election, the state still has $900 million in the CARES Act, $2.7 billion in rainy day funds. The county has been sitting on another $100 million. Are you waiting for the lame duck session, in order to really start dispersing some of those funds? Have you been made any promises by the Congress or anyone in the White House that first date of December 31st, where those funds then revert back to the federal government will be extended? It's only two months, and that's a lot of money. Governor DeWine: (19:10) Yeah. Well, we've been juggling that question about how much we spend now, because we know we're going to need money in January, February, March, April, May. I can't tell you where we are. We will have an announcement, I think tomorrow. I'm talking later today with the Speaker and the Senate President to finalize exactly where some of this CARES money will go. We'll announce that tomorrow, we hope, and with some specificity, as far as the amount. That money, as soon as the controlling board will meet, that money will go right out. Governor DeWine: (19:52) In addition to that, I talk very frequently to the County Commissioners from major cities or major counties, as well as talking with mayors. Mayor Jackson, I'll talk with tomorrow, Executive Budish, I talked to today. These are some of the things that we talk about, how well they're doing in dispersing the money, how well that we're doing. We're trying to balance this, because we know we're going to need money next year. I'm an optimist. I believe that Congress will get something passed, whether that occurs before the election or not, I don't know, but I believe that Congress will get it done this year. I believe if a bill passes, they will have something in there which will allow us to roll that money over there. While I don't know that, I have no inside scoop- Speaker 5: (20:52) Do you have a deadline, when you make that decision, when you'll- Governor DeWine: (20:56) I think things are going to get more clear in the next several weeks. I think it's going to be pretty clear, which way this thing is going to go, and whether that's a possibility. I say I'm an optimist simply because I don't really see that they're horribly far apart. There's a deal to be had there, clearly. There's clearly a deal to be had. Speaker 5: (21:21) Will you be told until after the election? Is that what's holding it up? Governor DeWine: (21:27) I'm not going to go there. You'll have to talk to Mr. Brown, Mr. Portman, your two senators, our two senators. Yeah. Speaker 6: (21:35) Governor, the schools are all over the map on their approach to bringing kids back. One of the issues there is money. Different school districts have space and technology differences. Will money come from the state to help them? What do you say to those school districts that can't figure this out right now? Governor DeWine: (21:51) Yeah. I've given to every superintendent, my personal email. I've heard from a lot of them and what I would say to them, if they have a specific- Governor DeWine: (22:02) And what I would say to them, if they have a specific money problem that we would like to hear about. I know we've heard from some and they've done. I think they've done a good job with what they've done. Most of them still have money to draw down, but if they look at that money and think, "Hey, we're not going to make it," we still want to know. We want to know about it, but as far as the Cares Act money that went directly to them, they draw it down as they spend it. That's how it's worked with the federal government, and so most of them still have significant amount of money to draw down, but we're a very open to hearing from them. And again, I want to say this. Superintendents have done a good job, principals, teachers. I think our schools have done a very, very good job. Governor DeWine: (22:53) It's really incumbent upon us as citizens to be careful. I don't care how good the school is, job that they do. If there is widespread virus in the community, there will be spread in that school. There is no way they can keep it out. The same way with our nursing homes, we worry about our nursing homes. For people who are say, "Oh, well, I don't care. I'm not going to get it, or if I get it, it's going to be okay," I would simply say to them worry about the people in the nursing homes who are vulnerable. Worry about your grandparents who are vulnerable because you getting it maybe spreads to somebody who is very vulnerable and maybe you'll be okay, but they may not. They may not be okay. We're all in this together, literally. Reporter: (23:50) With what you've said about the nursing home, many counties up here, Lorain County specifically, has been seeing an increase in congregate settings cases in the last couple of weeks that they're seeing very few for a long time. Would you attribute that at all to the change in the weather, the weather getting colder, or would it be more people just being casual about that? Governor DeWine: (24:08) Well, when you see an increase in the nursing homes, in general, it's going to mean that there is more spread in the community. Now, some of it's luck. There's an element of luck with everything or bad luck with everything, but if you're starting to see more widespread spread in nursing homes in general, that comes from more spread in the community. So what we do in the community literally impacts our school, people we care about, our elderly, people in the nursing home, people in the congregate settings, and certainly our kids in school and their ability to stay in school. Reporter: (24:57) With that in mind, what would you say about Halloween? You haven't had things or mandated against Halloween. I know there are recommendations, but arguably Halloween would be the definition of spread through community. Governor DeWine: (25:12) Well, I think it's clear Halloween parties are not a good idea. Big gatherings are not a good idea. As I said at the beginning, there's ways to do most things that can be safe. Parents going out with kids and trying to keep those kids, their kids, separate from other kids is important. I think how trick-or-treaters approach a house is important. Don't go right up to the door. And I would say the same thing to people who want to turn their light on and want to have a treat for them, there's probably a way of doing it, but you just got to be careful. I mean, what you don't want is the spread of touching a lot of different things, but it is outside. And again, people need to wear some sort of mask. What you always worry about Halloween, or at least what I worry about, is any kind of mask messing up vision because kids can get hurt, trip over something, mess up their vision. You don't want to ever mess up vision, but this type of a mask won't do vision. You'll see fine. There's ways of doing it, and I think people just have to be careful with their kids and how they go about it. Reporter: (26:41) Senate Republicans introduced that bill to take away the 10:00 PM curfew on bars the other day. Governor DeWine: (26:47) That's been a lot of bills introduced. Reporter: (26:49) Well, that's what I'm wondering is we're eight months into this and you keep facing pushback, particularly from the within your party, bills or whatever, some a little more zany than the others, such as people want to indict [inaudible 00:05:01]. I'm just curious for your thoughts given we are eight months into this. We do have a generally okay idea of what works, how to prevent spread, but you do keep facing this pushback. I mean, I'm just curious for your thoughts on it. I mean, are people still in government specifically not taking this seriously enough? Governor DeWine: (27:22) Well, look, everybody has a different opinion and everybody approaches things differently. I'm going to continue to do what I need to do, do two things, keep our economy going and keep Ohioans safe. I think we can truly do both. The bars are a difficult question, as I said, because most people who are running bars, most people who are running restaurants, are doing a good job. I've fully realized that a 10:00 PM shut off of liquor sales, 11:00 PM goes off the table, can't drink anymore, I fully understand that cost bars money and it cost restaurants. They may lose people who want to come at 9:30 and eat dinner and have a drink or two, have a bottle of wine, so I don't minimize that. I don't minimize the impact that that has had. When we were seeing these numbers go down, frankly, we were on the verge of lifting that 10:00 PM time, but it shot up like a rocket. Governor DeWine: (28:31) And this is not the time for us to do that. We also frankly had discussions with a lot of mayors. With the exception of Mayor Cranley, and several other smaller community mayors, I think every mayor I've talked to is not in favor of lifting at this point, same way with university presidents. I talked to the public university presidents in Ohio specifically about that issue, and to a person they were not in favor of lifting that time. So they're the ones who are on the ground, along with the mayors and others. And we do not have the ability in Ohio, we don't think, lawyers tell me, to have one set of rules one place and another set of rules somewhere else. So, for now, we're going to stay at 10 o'clock. Reporter: (29:26) Governor, are you worried about social distancing and all of the Jewish faith schools that have reopened, and is the state able to monitor that? Governor DeWine: (29:36) Well, I'm worried about social distancing anywhere. I think by and large our schools had done a very good job. For example, we have grandchildren. Some of our grandkids opened up school five days a week. We had other ones online. We have some hybrid, all over the place, but we have one school, for example, where some of my grandkids go, where they just went since Green County, or [inaudible 00:30:08] County, went red. They went from full time to half day, every day. And so what that means is they're going to have half the kids in each class, so they'll be able to spread out more. The distancing's important, and the fact that with very few exceptions, the schools have been able to maintain a very, very high rate of mask wearing. I think has been very good, so we're always watching and seeing what's going on, but I don't have any reason to think that that will not continue. Reporter: (30:50) What actions do you have left if [inaudible 00:30:52] if this does continue to worsen, is the only option essentially like, "Hey, if this continues to get worse, yeah, we have to go back into shutdown mode"? [inaudible 00:31:02] It feels like you've tried [inaudible 00:31:02] everything over the past eight months. Governor DeWine: (31:09) Yeah. I mean, I really don't think this is what we want to have happen because when there's a shutdown, some obvious things happen. And this has been tough enough for people from a mental health point of view. This is tough. Drug addiction appears to be going up. So the virus itself has caused a lot of problems. We know when we actually shut down the state that that took the economy down as well, along with the pandemic that took it down. So there's really no reason that Ohioans can not be careful and go about our business and do most of the things that we have done in the past. We just got to do them differently. So I don't look for us to get to that point. I've said that I would never rule things out. I can't make up scenarios, but that's not where we want to go. That's not what we want to do. Reporter: (32:17) Is there a certain of cases [inaudible 00:10:22]? Governor DeWine: (32:27) Well, look, this thing is going at a very high rate and we can slow this down. In fact, we not only can slow it down, but we can take it down. If you look, this is a printout. If you look at the region, we are now in the region, the number of cases per a hundred thousand for two weeks, we are 98.9. So the region as a whole... Governor DeWine: (33:03) We're at 98.9. So, the region as a whole is pretty much at what the CDC calls high incident level. Now, some counties are a lot lower. I'm just looking down here. Lorain County is at 59.7; Lake, 53.9. But then, Richland County is 121; Portage, 122; Holmes County at 186; Tuscarawas County, 170. So, the that higher this number and we put this out every single day so you can see it every day, but it goes back every day, two weeks, and how many cases then per 100,000 population. So, we do have some counties in Western Ohio that are almost 400, somewhat 350. So, this region by and large has been doing pretty well. But now, we're seeing a change. We're seeing a significant change all over the state of Ohio. Speaker 7: (34:08) Governor, are you speaking in other counties that have this high incident why you're here today and why on a plane- Governor DeWine: (34:13) Yeah. I started in Columbus on Friday. I went all along the Ohio River into basically the West Virginia media markets that go into Ohio and ended up in Cincinnati. And then prior to that, I spent a day starting in Toledo, Lima, Dayton. I've also done this in Mahoning Valley as well. So, I have a couple more smaller media markets to go to. But, I'm basically going around the state because I want to talk directly to the people in the area and look at the data that is going on. Again, I just want to say that county people of Northeast Ohio have done a good job. We just now got to get back up and do it again. That's what's going to take. Speaker 8: (35:04) With the Northeast Ohio data, both Cuyahoga County and Summit County have five of the seven indicators. The two that aren't met are hospital admissions and ICU bed capacity. However, both Summit, Cleveland in particular, both Summit and Cuyahoga County have high capacity healthcare. We have the clinic. We have QA. We have all the possible solution. Is there any skewing? Do your experts worry at all that the numbers are actually worse, it looks worse up here and that would just be because we have this healthcare capacity? Governor DeWine: (35:42) Well, we do have great healthcare capacity here. But also, we've got a high population. We've got people who live, if you look at these counties. The way we've got this state designed is in three major areas. So, the Cleveland hospital ultimately could be responsible for people from this whole range of counties. I think really, we ask people to look at two things and these are just indicators. What color is your county and how many cases per 100,000 did you have in the last two weeks? If you look at those two things, you get a pretty good idea of what's going on. What we're seeing now is that increase, it's a fairly rapid increase. It's a rapid increase. Okay. Speaker 9: (36:43) When you look at the contact tracing front here where just anything that's shown, we talk about weddings a lot. Is there any other kind of activity that is specific to Northeast Ohio that is maybe causing this rise like something that- Governor DeWine: (37:00) No. The interesting thing is that the type thing that's occurring in Northeast Ohio, as far as spread, is across the state. We don't see a huge difference. Again, it's informal settings. It's people letting their guard down. It's human nature. So no, I don't see anything that's specifically unique. Since you mentioned tracing, I would make one more appeal and that is our health departments are doing a really good job. But, they need help. And so, when the health department contacts you, please help them. All they're trying to do is cut this virus off. This virus can only spread by our help from person to person. We know now today that it's primarily by air and that's how it spreads. So being able to figure out for someone who has the virus, who know they have the virus, who they were in contact with, and then helping that person is really what this is all about. Speaker 9: (38:16) Have you been seeing instances where people are being resistant at all? Governor DeWine: (38:17) Yes. I talked to you, as I said, 113 health department and sometimes people are reluctant. We have sometimes parents who are concerned that their child is going to be out of school. Their child is not going to be able to play sports. I understand all that. As a parent and as a grandparent, I get that. But, we're in this together and that cooperation is very important. Most people cooperate well. Speaker 9: (38:47) Do you know what the response rate is as far as- Governor DeWine: (38:52) No, it varies by county. I don't have that, but it certainly varies by county. So, okay. Speaker 10: (39:00) Sir, is there a certain region where the tracing response is worse than others? Governor DeWine: (39:07) I can't tell you that. I don't know that right off the top of my head. I think you do see sometimes by county. That would not be something that... I'm looking down at this list and I'm seeing a couple of counties where I know it's been a problem. But by and large, it's not. But a couple of county health directors, as I look at the counties, have mentioned to me, "Hey, we got some real resistance." Again, I just would ask people to please, please help them. These health departments are doing a very good job. They've got a very, very tough job. And then, they've got ways to go. Okay, last. Speaker 11: (39:58) Do you think that resistance is contributing at all significantly to the increase in spread that we're seeing? [inaudible 00:40:04]. Governor DeWine: (40:14) Well, the ability to contact trace is in a central part of what we have to do every day. And so, when health department can't contract trace, can't do what they need to do, sure, that causes spread. But, I wouldn't attribute our spread to that. It doesn't help, makes it worse. But by and large, people are being cooperative. So, we thank them for that. Thank you all very much to be with everybody. Don't want to get your microphone wet. See you all. Thank you.