Today, #COVID19 is spreading with a vengeance across parts of #Ohio. It lurks, waiting to attack victims in all 88 counties. Tragically, in 4 months, we’ve already lost 3,075 Ohioans to this dreaded disease - nearly the same number of Ohioans who died in the Vietnam War.

Our hospitals are seeing more and more #COVID19 patients. There are 1,027 of our fellow citizens in our hospitals suffering from COVID today.

316 are in intensive care.

146 are on a ventilator.

Many who’ve recovered now suffer from long-term - and in some cases, permanent - health consequences, such as lung damage, kidney damage, and other significant medical problems.

Ohio is now nearing our April and May peak of 1,100 hospital patients, with the #Cincinnati and #Dayton regions currently seeing more COVID-positive patients in the hospital than during any previous time during the pandemic. The #Cleveland region nearing a similar point.

At the beginning of the pandemic, it took Ohio 20 days to reach our first 1,500 total cases. Last week, we saw over 1,500 cases in a single day. And to think, just a month ago, we were at only 400 new cases per day.

I know some say that our case numbers are increasing because we are simply doing more testing. Yes, our testing has gone up by 87%. But our number of positive cases has skyrocketed by almost 200%. Clearly, our number of new cases is not just the result of increased testing.