Ohio Department of Health Estimates 100,000+ Already Infected With Coronavirus in Ohio

Posted on March 12, 2020

Dr. Amy Acton, director of health for the Ohio Department of Health (ODH), says they know at least 1% of the population of Ohio is carrying the coronavirus. This percentage would mean there are at least 100,000 people carrying the coronavirus in Ohio.

Ohio has only confirmed five cases, primarily due to the lack of test kits being available until recently. The Hill reports that Dr. Acton said during a press conference, "Our delay in being able to test has delayed our understanding of the spread of this."

Dr. Acton also raised concerns about a lack of ventilators. She says Ohio is in a "crisis situation" and that "this will be the thing this generation remembers."

Evidence from other countries has indicated there is a delay (of up to 14 days) before people fall seriously ill after getting infected with Covid-19. The ODH appears to be using disease modeling and estimating that 1% of the population is already infected. This has them very concerned that hospitals are about to be hit hard when a portion of these people fall seriously ill. This percentage of those falling ill enough to require hospitalization has been around 15-20% of those infected in other countries. This is likely to vary based on local demographics.
More from Science Space & Robots