“The virus is spreading throughout our community,” Cooper said.
Previously Montgomery County was seeing 50 to 60 cases reported each day, now it’s at 200 to 250, he said. The county’s positivity rate has also increased to 11%.
“We must be about health first,” Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said, repeating Cooper’s plea to stay home and avoid large groups.
Whaley noted that the pandemic will have an economic impact, which is why she supports petitioning Congress for additional stimulus packages.
As cases have continued to rise in Montgomery County and throughout the state, hospitalizations have also increased.
Michel Uhl, president and CEO of Miami Valley Hospital, said that local hospitals are prepared to take to care of COVID-10 and non-COIVD-19 patients. He also stressed that hospitals are safe.
Though hospitals have space to treat patients, they are running out of staff.
“We have the capacity, this is about staff capacity,” Uhl said. “Team members are getting exposed to the virus out in the community because of an inability to adhere to basic principles.”
He stressed that people avoid large groups and where masks while out in the community.
Terry Burns, chief operating officer of Kettering Health Network, echoed Uhl’s call to follow safety measures.
“The mask is vital to us suppressing the growth of COIVD now,” Burns said.
He noted that if current trends continue, coronavirus rates could double “in a relatively short period.”
Burns and Uhl said that COVID-19 is accounting for about 18% of the patients for each hospital network.
Uhl noted that coronavirus patients also require additional measures and care that doesn’t apply to other patients, which can put more of a strain on staff.
Dr. Michael Dohn, medical director of Public Health, discussed updates in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Pfizer Inc. announced earlier this week that its vaccine could be 90% effective based off early test. Dohn was hopeful about the development, saying that health officials were expecting a vaccine to only be about 60% effective.
He addressed concerns that the development was moving too quickly.
“They haven’t cut corners,” Dohn said. "The difference is they’ve done an accelerated process.”
He compared it to cooking Thanksgiving dinner. People don’t cook or bake the different dishes one at a time. They work on different elements at the same time.
As of Thursday, Montgomery County has reported 15,228 total cases of coronavirus, according to the Ohio Department of Health. People under 30 account for most cases in the area, with 3,121 cases for ages 20-29 and 2,194 cases for those 0-19.
Ohio reported 7,101 daily cases on Thursday, breaking the previous record of 6,508 set on Tuesday.
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