Doctor Insight: Ohio has over 3,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and a surge is still to come

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)– Right now, the United States is topping 245,000 cases of Coronavirus and in New York, they’re seeing over 92,000 in the city alone.

Here in Ohio, we have over 3,000 and that number continues to grow by the day. 

According to Dr. Amy Acton, we are slowing the spread of COVID-19 by staying home. But even with the slow down of the virus, our front line workers are still getting ready for what they call this much-anticipated surge of cases still to come.

“I think there is mostly uncertainty because we haven’t hit any of the peaks they’re speaking of.”

Dr.  Brian Goodhue works as an ER physician at a local hospital and a public health expert. He says there is a lot of anticipation for this surge but he says they are ready.

“This is what we’ve trained for and this is what we do and I think positivity is what’s going to keep us going at this point,” explained Dr. Goodhue.

Right now, Dr. Goodhue says they’ve seen less routine patients which is alleviating stress and freeing up supplies. 

“I think those public health messages are resonating with the community.”

And as for the Covid-19 patients he’s seeing now, he wants to reassure the public that most people who are healthy with this are told to go home and eventually fight it off.

“It’s the people who have are immune suppressed or immune-compromised systems that I think are having the worst time with this,” noted Dr. Goodhue. 

He says front line workers across the board are now taking a different approach to staying healthy and virus free.

“We consider everyone positive and that’s how we protect ourselves,” said Goodhue. “I think the governor is doing a good job ramping up PPE and I think that was the whole idea of flattening the curve.”

And while they wait for that surge, he says the outreach and outpouring of support from our community is reassuring them why they chose this career to begin with.

“Not only makes us feel respected but makes us feel like we want to perform better for the community. We already perform our best but it makes us want to be better,” said Dr. Goodhue.

Dr. Goodhue also says he’s thrilled with the new sanitation process created by Battelle. He is confident in all of our state leaders’ decisions so far since the start of this pandemic.