04/23/2020

COVID-19 Update: 618 Confirmed Deaths and 14,142 Confirmed Cases

April 23, 2020

These are the updates from today’s press conference with Governor Mike DeWine and Lt. Governor Jon Husted. Tomorrow’s press conference is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. As of today, there are 14,142 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 552 probable cases for a total figure of 14,694 cases. There have been 2,960 hospitalizations, 618 confirmed deaths and 38 probable deaths; there have been 900 ICU admissions

DeWine invited Mark Weir, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Environmental Health at The Ohio State University, to discuss how health risks change as changes are made to the environment. He explained that minimizing the spread of the disease as Ohio begins the long process of reopening depends on personal and environmental controls. Personal precautions include interrupting the infection process by practicing good hand hygiene and wearing masks.

For the week ending April 18, 2020, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) reported 109,369 initial jobless claims to the U.S. Department of Labor. The number of initial jobless claims filed in Ohio over the last five weeks stands at 964,566. Over these last five weeks, ODJFS has distributed more than $926 million in unemployment compensation payments to more than 376,000 claimants. Pursuant to an order from the Department of Labor order, Ohio will release unemployment numbers on a weekly basis as soon as the national report is released on Thursday.

Starting Friday, April 24, Ohioans who are unemployed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic but don’t qualify for regular unemployment benefits can begin pre-registering for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), a new federal program that covers many more categories of workers. To pre-register for PUA benefits, Ohioans should visit unemployment.ohio.gov and click on “Get Started Now.”