© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
WKSU, our public radio partners in Ohio and across the region and NPR are all continuing to work on stories on the latest developments with the coronavirus and COVID-19 so that we can keep you informed.

State Health Department Director Says More Big Decisions to Come Regarding Coronavirus

photo of Amy Acton and Mike DeWine
KAREN KASLER
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Ohio Department of Health director Amy Acton compares the coronavirus to the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic.

There are still no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Ohio, but the state department of health reports three people now under investigation.  

Along with those three people under investigation, there have been seven people who were tested and are negative for the coronavirus disease COVID-19, and 255 people are or have been in self quarantine.

Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton says the state now has kits and can conduct its own tests. And she says CDC guidance on what to do will be constantly changing, resulting in big decisions like the one to cancel the Arnold Sports Festival for spectators, except for the finals.

“We will be making more of these – many of you lived through many epidemics over time. We will be making more of these every day,” Acton said 

Acton says so far this appears to be similar to the H1N1 or swine flu pandemic, which started in April 2009 and went on for 16 months.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.