Ohio Sends 1 Million Pieces Of Protective Equipment To Prisons

COLUMBUS, OH — In an attempt to bottle the outbreak of the new coronavirus, Ohio prisons have received more than 1 million pieces of protective equipment for staff and inmates. Most of the equipment will be directed to guards and other staffers, though inmates will receive cloth masks.

"Our goal is to keep a 90-day supply of the most critical equipment," Gov. Mike DeWine said on Thursday. "These allocations, coupled with what the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has on hand, are helping achieve that. We’ve achieved that target with N95 and procedure masks, as well as gloves. We’ll keep working on the rest."

Here's what the state's prisons will be receiving:

• 108,000 N95 masks;
• 256,000 gloves;
• 684,000 procedure masks;
• 10,000 provider gowns; and
• 100,000 cloth masks for inmates

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"We created our pandemic plan in 2009. We have updated and practiced our plan. We started making PPE — hand sanitizer, face shields, masks, etc. We were the second prison in the nation to stop accepting visitors," said ODRC Director Annette Chambers Smith.

Since the start of the outbreak, at least 27 inmates at Ohio prisons have died due to complications from COVID-19. Two prison staffers, one guard and one nurse, have also died because of the virus, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections announced.

All but four of Ohio's 28 state prisons are in full quarantine protocol. Half of Ohio's state prisons have at least one confirmed case of COVID-19. Marion Correctional Institute has more than 1,900 confirmed cases of the virus.

Thursday's Numbers

This week's steady surge in new COVID-19 cases continued Thursday. There were 362 new COVID-19 cases confirmed on Monday, 444 new cases on Tuesday and 534 new cases on Wednesday. On Thursday, there were 724 new cases of the new coronavirus in Ohio, the state health department announced.

Ohio officials have said they were hoping to see a plateau, or even decline, in new cases of the virus around the state as portions of the economy begin reopening on Friday, May 1.

The state also recorded 38 deaths related to the virus on Thursday, bringing total COVID-19 deaths in Ohio to 975. There have been at least 18,027 cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak began.

Deaths tend to lag several days, or weeks, behind upticks in COVID-19 cases. Officials have said the recent uptick in deaths in Ohio may be related to the previous surge in infections.

Reopening Schedule

The state is planning to reopen the economy in phases. Here is the plan presented by DeWine:

• May 1 - Vets, dentists, hospital procedures that don't require overnight stays
• May 4 - General offices, manufacturing, construction and distribution
• May 12 - Consumer retail and services

More reading:

• Costco Requires Ohio Shoppers To Cover Faces: Coronavirus
• Ohio Shipping Protective Equipment To Nursing Homes, Jails
• Coronavirus: Ohio Unemployment Claims Top 1 Million
• Coronavirus In Ohio: 138 New Deaths Confirmed