• Each to receive $200,000
• State at highest point for both hospitalized and ICU patients

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has announced $30 million to assist 113 health departments in the state to fight and prevent further spread of coronavirus.

“We are setting aside $30 million dollars to assist the state’s 113 local health departments. Each department will receive $200,000 and they will have the flexibility to determine how to best use the funds as they see fit to fight COVID-19,” said Governor Mike DeWine.

“The remaining money will be used to hire contact tracers to support local health departments. Those tracers would be able to deploy wherever they are needed across the state to assist in identifying individuals who may have been exposed to COVID-19 and prevent further spread.”

He promised to “continue to offer state resources and support to help fight COVID-19 at the local level.”

Governor DeWine disclosed that “68 of our counties are now red and Franklin and Tuscarawas counties are on our watch list.”

“Today’s new red counties are: Brown, Delaware, Erie, Hancock, Jackson, Knox, Miami, Paulding, Seneca, Shelby, Williams and Wood. 8 of these counties are red for the first time. The entire state is filling in with red.”

According to him, “graph shows the 7-day moving average outpatient visits for patients with either a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 diagnosis code. The trend is similar to those we are seeing for case counts as well as hospitalizations.”

“We are currently at our highest point for both hospitalized and ICU patients since the beginning of the pandemic.”

On covid19 vaccines, Governor DeWine said, “We are going to have first batch of vaccines in December. Even at that, it is going to take a while to start distributing them.”