Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, and three other Ohio counties have issued stay at home advisories for residents as coronavirus cases continue to spike.
Cleveland saw a record number of new cases this week, and the city and county health departments are warning that health systems could soon be overwhelmed with COVID patients.
Health commissioner Terry Allan says projections of new cases provide grim warnings about what’s ahead over the next few weeks.
“They’re showing 1,000 to 2,000 cases per day across the county if we continue on this trajectory over the coming weeks. Our staff are beyond capacity regarding case investigation and contact tracing and we’re now forced to triage our response due to these unprecedented volumes.”
The stay-at-home advisory in Cuyahoga County is voluntary, but officials are asking people only to go out if necessary.
In Cleveland Wednesday, Gov. Mike DeWine called on Ohioans to pare down plans for Thanksgiving.
A statewide three-week curfew goes into effect tomorrow that requires residents to stay home after 10 p.m. and for retail businesses to close between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.
Health officials are struggling to track surging numbers of new cases, and health departments across the state are often no longer able to contact people who may have been exposed due to the excess volume.
Allan calls it a looming humanitarian issue and urged residents to comply with the voluntary stay-at-home directive.
“We want you to stay home to the greatest extent possible. You can go to work and school, or for essential needs like medical care, the pharmacy, or to the grocery store to prepare food and the like, but otherwise limit your travel. You have to assume that anybody you come into contact with out there now, you should presume that they could be positive. We have so much transmission. And you should act as if you're positive.”
Stay-at-home orders have also been issued in Medina, Franklin and Montgomery counties.
More orders could be on the way across the state as local health departments take steps to keep hospital systems from becoming overwhelmed.
Read the full advisory here:
