Gov. Dewine good afternoon, everyone. Hope everybody had a good weekend. Today i want to talk about where we have been, where we are today, and where we are going in the future in regard to our battle with covid19. But before i do that, i would like to remind all of us, myself included, of three things. And i would ask you to keep these in mind as we talk about this today and as we talk about this in the future. Because i think these three things are very, very important. One, you have done an amazing job. Staying at home, staying apart. The things that we ask you to do, ohioans have stepped up. Candidly, we are where we are today where we can start getting the economy moving, start getting people back to work, we are here because of what you have done. Its mattered. Youve got the job done. Number two, second fact, the coronavirus is still here. Its just as dangerous as it has ever been. Its still living amongst us. I was thinking about this this weekend, and i thought back to when fran and i were children growing up. Sunday morning we would go to st. Pauls catholic church, and the nuns taught us, and i remember, it is sheared in my memory, the nuns talking about the devil, and the devil is roaming the world searching for souls. Im not saying that the virus is the devil. I would describe it as a monster. But it is searching. And it is searching for bodies. And the way it does it is from going from one body to the other. The main things that you have done, you have dramatically slowed this process. But the virus is still out, it is still in ohio, just as dangerous as it was before. Third fact, the tools that we have had to slow it down, to break it from going from one person to the other, are still the same. We actually have a couple new ones, but the essential ones, the most important ones are still the same. Distance, distance, distance. Keeping that distance. Second, washing our hands. Third, the normal sanitation of surfaces and other things. And what i normally call masks, i do not know if it is a true mask or not, but it is something to cover our face, a face covering. These are things that we have used successfully, and these are things that we are going to have to continue to do as we start moving forward in the economy. I had a conversation first of all, i want to thank our business group. We had men and women from bigger companies, midsized companies, small companies, and asked them to come together and help us in coming up with the right protocols. Frankly, we have learned from things that have occurred with businesses that were allowed to stay open, some of the things that they have done where they have done a really, really good job. The person who headed that up was Frank Sullivan. I had a conversation with frank this morning i have a lot of conversations with him, as this has been getting put together. Something the Lieutenant Governor worked on daily. He said, the idea that we cannot do two things at once in ohio is crazy. We are ohioans. We can do two things at once. We can get this economy moving back, and at the same time continue to protect each other, and protect our communities. So, lets talk a little bit about that. And let me start with where we are, and what we have accomplished. And i want to talk, as you will see some of these things im going to show you, they directly relate, directly relate to getting us moving in may, and getting us moving forward. So, i am going to start if i could with the covid19 statistics that we just got a few minutes ago. And i will start you can see the total number of cases. But what i would look at is over here to this side. Five day reported case average. You go back five days and look at what we have seen, what is that average. So lets start with cases. Five day reported cases, go back five days, 442 was the average for each day. Last 24 hours, 362. So, you can see we are going in the right direction, down. Down. It is a lagging indicator, so it is always far behind whatever else is occurring. In the last 24 hours, what was reported is the deaths at 25 of our fellow citizens were reported. The five day average, going back five days, was 29. Hospitalizations, again, something that i always want to look at. These are things that i look at every morning. Last reported last 24 hour reported hospitalizations, new ones, 54. Five day average was 70. Again, that one is going in the right direction. Admissions in the last 24 hours, 26. Five day average is 20. You can see with these lines that what you have done is made a difference. Now, we are not there. We have not had two weeks coming down. But we are moving. We are moving in the right direction. And it is because of what you have done, and that is just so very, very important. Let me share with you Something Else. And remember i talked about may as a crucial month. We needed to fight this virus, two additional things, besides what you have been doing. We need two additional things. We need to ramp up testing dramatically, and we need at the same time to do the tracing. So i am going to start with the testing. Remember last week we talked about earlier in the week, i talked about asking former governor celeste and governor taft to come in and help us. They pulled together with our team. We were able to get an agreement with Thermo Fisher in regard to a problem that we have had and other states have had, and that is the inability to get enough reagent. That was a major breakthrough. Also last week, the manufacturer alliance, specifically road dental. Now we have come up with a method to consistently make a lot more swabs. Every single day. So, those two things coming together. This is what may looks like. This is what our projection is. We start april 29, that is this wednesday. And you will see at the top in white, daily testing totals. And you will see each week, where we go. April 29, that week, that next seven days, daily testing at about 7200 a day. That is significantly above what we have had. A weekly total of roughly 43,000. The week beginning may 6, we double it. 14,000. And again, you will see the number doubling down below, that is the weekly total. May 13, roughly 18,000 per day. May 20, 20,000. May 27, 22,000. This is what we think we will be able to achieve. But we think we have a real shot at getting those numbers, and being able to come up with that much capacity to test. So, again, in may, a lot of interesting things are happening, and things that we have been waiting for, things that we have trying to get going. Last week it kicked in. Lets go to tracing. We talked last week about tracing. Tracing and testing go together. And tracing, as the doctor explained it last week, is something that Health Departments have done for years. Nothing new about tracing. Simply trying to break that, separate people, so when someone has it, someone has been exposed to it, then they do not expose someone else. It is kind of basic. And again, it is something that our 113 Health Departments know how to do. But the challenge is they have never had this many to do. This is at a scale that we have never seen before. And so, if we are going to move the economy forward, open things up, we have got to be able to do the testing, we have got to do the tracing, and you all have got to continue to do the separation and all the things that you have been doing. So, this is the Contact Tracing workforce. It takes people. To the left we have about 685 local Public Health workers at local public Health Departments around the state of ohio who are trained to do this. They are there. But clearly that will not be enough. So right now under tier one, we have about 900 volunteers. These are people who have been doing other things, they said they would volunteer to do this. And we are using some of these volunteers now. But we know that this could be with us for a year, 18 months, and this tracing will have to be done over a long period of time. So hiring people over the long haul is probably where we need to go. So we are giving money to each of the Health Department s around the states so they can hire people to do this. We are going to bring them into train them. Again, this goes back as partners in health, a group i told you about, they will come and help us train these workers. This is a pool that we are putting together at the state level. Tier two and tier three are really occurring simultaneously as we move forward through the month. What is that group for . It is for if we have a nursing home or we have a number of people who have the virus, or if we have Something Else in the community, a village, somewhere else where the local Health Care Department is overrun. We will be able to surge people in there to make a difference. Our aspirational goal, 1750 workers in process. So again, a lot of things we believe will happen in may. The tracing, the testing enables us to move forward to open up the economy even more. I do not think i have to tell any ohioan the importance of moving forward. My heart aches for the businessmen and women who have not been able to work, who are looking at savings going down every day. The people who work in those businesses, people who are unemployed, one cannot overstate the tragedy of this. So, weve got to get moving. Weve got to get people back to work. Weve got to open things backup. At the same time we have to protect ohioans. So lets talk about how we are going to move forward. And let me just say, add one more thing, and the Lieutenant Governor the other day did a very good job talking about this. There are many Health Results when the economy goes down. They are not good. Depression goes up, Domestic Violence goes up, and i could go on and on. So these are things that are directly related to peoples wellbeing, directly related to their health. The anxiety of not having a paycheck, the anxiety of not knowing how you are going to take care of your family. These are all things that impact peoples lives. Ive talked a lot, weve talked a lot about and i know a lot of speculation in the news media, when we are going to open this up, when we are going to open that up, when it is going to be and those are all logical questions. But i think the most important question really is how we do it. Because if we do it right, we can provide as much protection as we can, theres always a risk, but as much protection as we can to our workers, as much protection as we can to everyone involved. So how is very important. Let me start with our first announcement. On may 1, we are going to have a health care opening. I want to talk a little bit about why we have slowed things down in hospitals. March 17, director acton issued an order in regard to nonessential medical procedures. Why was that order issued . It was issued because we needed to make sure that as the virus continued to spread that we had enough hospital beds to take care of it, that we had enough personal protective equipment for our First Responders, our hospital workers, people in Nursing Homes, etc. And we also wanted to utilize, make sure we are having the social distance. And we also wanted to utilize, make sure we are having the social distance. Again, you all have done a great job. Hospitals aret not full, we have space. Done a good job with social distancing. The one area that is still not quite where we want it is personal protection. It is coming. We have stood up more sources in ohio and other places, we have secured more of this. But it is not exactly where we want it, and that is the thing that we remain concerned about. But we have a team that works on this absolutely every day to try to secure more protection equipment. Our order that we are issuing for may 1, all Health Procedures that can be done that do not require an overnight stay in a hospital, we will be able to move forward with those procedures. Operations or procedures. And i would ask you to remember that under the old order, when surgeries were necessary, even if the person stayed overnight, those were still allowed. For example, and this is from the order that was issued before, a threat to the patients life is delayed. Those have always been allowed. Two, threat of permanent dysfunction of extremity, organ system, or possibly the spread of cancer. Those have certainly been allowed all through this. Three, pain. Someone has significant pain. And theres a procedure that can be done to alleviate that pain, those have always been allowed. Four, the presence of severe symptoms causing an inability to perform the normal actions of daily life. So, those have all been there. We have built upon those, and that includes any procedure that can be done where the person does not spend the night in the hospital. We also dentists, dentists, veterinarians should also beginning may 1, be able to be at full steam ahead. So all of this occurs on may 1. The only thing that is left is some elective surgeries, and as we see how we are moving forward and the availability of ppe, we will, when that time is appropriate, open that up as well. But this is a major, major change. And i know doctor acton will talk in a little bit about something that has occurred, not as a result of our order, but something has occurred because people have been afraid. Been afraid to go to their doctor, been afraid to go to the hospital. So, be respective of these orders that have never blocked that. We have seen wellbaby visits have gone down, many things have gone down. And doctor acton will talk a little bit about that and the importance about getting back in the game in regard to making sure that children, making sure yourself, or having the appointments that you need. I want to move now to may 4. May 4, manufacturing, distribution, and construction. That will be opened up. As i said, weve learned a lot from businesses that stayed open. And some of the things that we have provided in this order we have learned, frankly, from business. But again, it goes back what we are going to require of the companies that open up, and also any company that is already open. When these orders go in on may 4, this will apply to any manufacturing, construction, whether it was open before or not. Again, what i think people should look at is how, how we are doing it. And we are doing it in as safe a way as humanly possible based on what we have learned and what Health Experts have advised us. So, lets look at that chart. In fact, before i do that, let me call your attention to this one. Because this one, covid19 responsible protocols for getting ohio back to work. So, these will by and large apply to any company that will be opened up, under todays orders or future orders. And we have kind of done it for the health of employees, customers and tammy. Customers. Lead in responsibly getting ohio back to work. Protocols for all businesses. And have summarized it in a quote. No mask, no work, no service, no exception. Every employee will have to have a facial covering. Again, it doesnt have to be fancy, but a facial covering is important. Require face coverings for employees and clients and customers at all times. Two, conduct Daily Health Assessments by employers and employees. Self evaluate and determine if that person is fit. Three, good hygiene at all times, hand washing, social distancing. Four, clean and sanitize places throughout the workday and at the close of business. And over here, limit capacity to meet social distancing guidelines. At a minimum no more than 50 of the fire code, and it says here, use appointments where possible to limit congestion. Again, that depends on the nature, obviously, of the business. Take the following actions when a covid19 infection is identified. Immediately report employer customer to the local Health Department. Work to identify potentially exposed individuals to help facilitate appropriate communication, Contact Tracing, and shut down the shop floor for deep sanitation if possible. So, these are kind of the basic principles. Wanted to put on one page so people can see it, pretty easy to understand. So, these will all be up on our webpage by 5 00. 3 00, 3 00 i guess it will be up. It will be up on our webpage, and people can look at them. Now lets go directly to the manufacturing. Again, these are very, very consistent with what was on the more general slide that we just had over here. Let me just say a couple things. Again, basic principles. Distancing. People have to be kept apart. They cannot physically be kept apart, there has to be a screen or something to protect them. We have seen businesses, Manufacturing Companies that have been able to do every single one of these requirements. Many companies that are out there today are actually doing. And again, you will be able to look at these up on the webpage and any Manufacturing Company looking at that may 4 date, they will have all of that available. Let me also say on may 4, general offices will be able to be open. This is the chart for that, or it will be in a moment. And i will just call attention to several things on here. But to me, the most important is companies have found out that many of the members of their office can work from home and be just as efficient. We are asking companies as they go back into their office space to continue to do that as much as humanly possible. Continue to have people work from home. Again, we are all in this together, and what they do is going to allow us to move forward quicker as far as the opening of ohio. So, personnel work from home, if at all humanly possible. Let me go now to may 12. May 12, consumer, retail, and services. Again, this will be up on the webpage. It is pretty simple. It is one page. Let me call your attention to several things that are, in fact, up there. One, all employees will wear facial covering. The same thing will be true in regard to customers. So, we encourage every ohioan when out in public to wear a facial covering. We will not mandate that, but when a customer goes into a business, they will have to have that facial covering, because they will be dealing in a retail setting, and they will be dealing with the people who work there. And the thing that we have learned, that doctor acton has talked a lot about, several doctors have talked about, is that, really, when you put that on, facial covering, you are protecting the other person. So when two people do that, each one is protecting the other one. It is not a substitute for social distancing, but it is, as doctor acton has said, layering things on. The more things you do, the more protection you provide. This may be a little different, walking into a store, but all these requirements of course will be in place for companies that are already open. For example, the Grocery Stores that have been allowed to be open, when we get to may 12, every Retail Outlet that is open have to be able to follow these particular protocols. Let me add a couple more things before i turn this over to the Lieutenant Governor. The stayathome orders will still be in place. Now obviously they are modified, in that companies that are now open, people working in those companies will obviously be able to go there and work. The same is true for retail. When retail is opening up, anybody who wants to go to retail obviously is going to be able to do that. The gatherings, 10 people gathering order will remain on. So, i think you can kind of see what we are trying to do. We are trying to ease out, trying to get ohio back working. We know there are more things to do. We need to see how this works. We need to monitor the numbers. We need to see how our tracing and our testing is going. We believe we can live up to those goals that we put up there. So, a a lot of moving parts, a lot of things going on. This is the beginning. But to be able to do it and to move forward i have had businessmen and women tell me this and average citizens tell me this we do not want to go back. We do not want to have to open things up and have to fall back. We do not want to see a huge spike in hospitalizations. We do not want to see a huge spike in cases. The virus is still out there. Its not going to go away. But there is a lot we can do to lessen the impact, and we have been doing those and we just have to continue to do those at the same time we are trying to get folks back to work and make that happen. I want to call special attention to the people who are the most vulnerable. Again, doctor acton may talk a little bit about that. But as we look at who is the most vulnerable, we have to start off with, if you look at deaths, the deaths have not been nearly as high. They have been much, much higher obviously the older someone gets, and they may go up when someone has a medical problem. Anybody can get this, it would appear. And anyone can be ill. And if you look at national numbers, you will see even younger people can die as a result of it. But we do know that those 65 years of age or older are in a much more difficult situation. We know that anybody with chronic lung disease, moderate to severe asthma, severe obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, undergoing dialysis, liver disease, and on. So, those individuals, again, we just would remind you to be exceedingly careful. And you are at much greater risk if you get it, as far as what can happen. Again, i want to thank ohioans. We have gotten this far. We have got a ways to go. These are first steps. First steps in regard to retail, first steps in regard to moving forward with regard to manufacturing, with office, the medical side. These are things that we have been waiting to do. Because of what you have done, we are now in a position to do them. I know there are other things that all of us wanted to. If you want to get all of us want to do. If you want to get a haircut. You want to go back to restaurants. All of those things we are anxious to do as well. But we have got to see how we are doing with these numbers. We have to watch it for a few weeks. But we have already started conversations, had conversations saturday morning with some folks who run restaurants, own restaurants. We are starting conversations with people, and those conversations are going to continue and we are going to get those online as fast as we can. Certainly is a grandfather and father, there are all things we want to do with someone. Summer camp and things that kids want to do, and adults want to do. We are not quite there yet. We have just got to see how this is going to work. We have got to see how the numbers look. We do not want to go backward. So, one step at a time. But i think we are set for may to be a very good month as we move forward with the testing that we have, with the tracing, and all of you doing what you have been doing. Lieutenant governor. Lt. Gov. Husted thank, governor. Yes, i know all those things are already on our list as soon as we leave here to keep thinking about and figuring out what the best way is to think about them. I know that there will be a lot of questions about the specifics, and we are going to answer all of those questions. I just did want to take a moment, though, to just talk a little bit about this process and the thought process of all the people we talked to, because we certainly have learned a lot since march. Weve learned lessons on how we can solve problems and everything from changing our habits, to supply chains, to new strategies, everything that goes into start from zero with the virus nobody knew, to get us to where we are today. Its been an amazing reaction from the public and the people of america and the people of ohio, to come this far in such a short period of time. The plan we announced today is really the best advice that we got from a variety of voices. People in the medical community, which are certainly a little more cautious because of what they know. People in the economic, in the business community, who are a little more aggressive because of the consequences they know. And there are a variety of opinions. And bringing them together was an incredible challenge and balancing act. The one thing i want you to know was that everybodys voice was heard, and the governor heard them. The governor heard them lots and lots of times. And we are trying to balance all those voices. Many of those voices rightly expressed that the concern about the coronavirus is not going away, that it is going to be here through 2020, and it will continue to be a threat in our lives. We heard that a lot. And that if you make a decision solely on that basis, well, then you would reopen nothing because a threat is still out there. But every decision has risks. It has health risks, it has societal risks, it has personal risks, it has economic risks. Doing nothing is a risk. It is that balance, figuring out all of those things and how they fit together. You cannot look at it through just one lens. You have got to hear all the voices that exist, that are important in the decision. About this coronavirus, because we talked to lots of people. He regularly reminds me that there is not a lot of information about the virus, and there is no easy decision or certainty with anything we do. But we have also learned how to reduce risk, and that is what the governor outlined. That is a Risk Management proposal that helps us reduce the risk of coronavirus in our lives. And those provisions in this plan are aimed at doing just that. The land for opening your business or rejoining the workforce is one that is going to keep employees safe, and their customers safer as well. The one thing that i like about where we are at this point in time is that we are not just sitting back. We are taking steps and we are fighting back. He testing and tracing is a great tool that the governor talked about to do that. We are going to hunt it down, this coronavirus, we are going to isolate, it and we are going to kill it. We are going to be aggressive at getting ohio through this with the best strategy that we can muster. And you combine the testing with the distancing, the disinfecting, and the wearing of the masks, and its an effective coronavirus strategy. And, you know, i just want to reflect on this and take us back just a little bit. A primary reason, not the primary reason, for the aggressive restrictions was to make sure we did not overwhelm our health care system. And thanks to the governors early decisiveness, and the actions of the people of ohio, that did not happen. But just because that did not happen does not mean we can let up. We just cannot let up. We have to continue to be smart to make sure that that trend continues to go in the right direction, and that we will be able to sustain this continued rollback of restrictions into the future. And we need to take the same vigilance, take it on, all of us, to do what we have all been doing on social distancing, disinfecting, and wearing masks, to keep this coronavirus under control. I said this many times. Coronavirus is with us. This is the next phase in learning how to live with it safely so we can protect peoples lives and livelihoods, and strategy today is the best thought that we could put together from all of those many voices who have been giving us advice. Governor, thank you. Dr. Acton thank you, governor. Good afternoon, everyone. It is very good to be with you again. I had the good fortune to be able, for the first time, to really watch these press conferences myself at home. And, you know, theres so much you cannot see sometimes when you are in the middle of something. And in the middle of the intensity of what we have gone through, i took some advice from a mentor, one of the many mentors along this way. He is a cofounder of the center for leadership at harvard. And he often teaches in his classes in a conversation i had with him by proxy recently, that you have a hard job as a leader. You have to be on the dance floor, being in the dance, but every now and then you have to get up to the balcony and kind of look out at the dance floor. In a have to say, these couple of days and i have to say, these couple of days i have had has helped recenter me going forward. Global pandemics can be very challenging for so many reasons, not just the virus, but the disruption it brings to our lives, to our supply chain, to everything we have known. And it is all that can be equally difficult. We know we have climbed a mountain and we have plateaued and we are coming down now. And for those of us who have climbed mountains, we know sometimes that it is actually a little more difficult on that road coming down the mountain. And as the Lieutenant Governor said, we are learning and knowing so much every day. One of the greatest strengths of our team is that they are listeners, and they are learners, and at every step of the way we ask hard questions. And that will go on, that will never stop in this process. But there are so many things we do not know and i still learning, and there are some things we have learned. One of the things is we have to respect the mountain, we have to respect this virus. It will continue to evolve and we will continue to navigate it. But i read some remarks by the dean of the college of Public Health that got me thinking about this uncharted territory, that we are going to wisely navigate together. We are entering the next phase. We are entering in this historical experience we are having, this next phase will also be accompanied by stresses and anxieties, and excitement about new innovation. New things will take shape as we move forward. We will have successes, we will have occasional setbacks, we will learn from those, and we will have more successes. But it is that journey going down that mountain and going over these hills that we know are coming, that we will view together. It really has to be a collective effort, and it reminded me again of Public Health. When i became a physician, Public Health, to me, was being a pediatrician and helping an individual patient. The field of Public Health is about knowing all of us, and all of us are that individual patient, each and every one of us, our wellbeing. What Public Health taught me was about the collective, how it takes all segments of society to ensure health, nonprofits, to businesses, to government, to what we do as individuals. I mentioned before the socioecologic model. Think of you as individual wellbeing is and all your behaviors, your genetics, those vulnerabilities that some of us have, whether we have predispositions, or are older and at more risk, or have other diseases. This are learning with virus. But then i have to think about you in the context of your relationships and your family, and your school and places you meet up together. Then i think of it in terms of the next layer circle out, which is the institutions we are, where we live, work, play. And making sure that you are in healthy environments. Occupational health is part of health for that very reason. And all of that is then another layer out, are all the ways we build through our institutions and our policies that surround that. So your health and wellbeing is never a zerosum game. It is never your individual health pitted against where you work. It is never your health versus where you do your faith. It is all you. It is all you and the life you lead. And so, for me, Public Health really is about all those things collectively. And to move forward, we are all going to have to continue to be our best selves. Whether it is our self as a parent and what we are doing with our kids, our self as a schoolteacher, our self as a business owner. The way ohio is going to be strong is all of us continuing to be our best selves together. I believe we are going to do, just as we attacked this first phase, i believe all of us in ohio are going to do this next phase together with all that same spirit. Its essential that we do this all together. And we will balance all of this together. And most importantly, our communities will lead in this. And again, we will continue to help, listen to you, and help you along this journey. Thank you. Gov. Dewine ok. Questions . I just saw the press corps move en mass there. Or mask, sorry. [indiscernible] gov. Dewine none of the above. I talked about restaurants moving forward. We know theres a great desire to move forward on that. We know we want to get people back into restaurants, we want people to get back to work, and folks want to get going. We also know that daycare remains a great challenge for people. What we wanted to start doing was starting down the pathway of opening things up where we thought there was less risk, frankly, and at least more controllable risk, more ability to control the environment. Daycare is very difficult, as schools are, to control the environment. It does not mean it is not necessary, does not mean it is not important. I i understand what families are going through, but we want to start down the pathway that is things that are easiest to control. Jack windsor. Question for doctor acton or governor dewine. Last week doctor acton said 5 to 15 of us are infected. Random sampling from around the country confirms that infection rate. At 5 the fatality rate is. 001 and in line with the flu. At 15 it is. 0004, about half death at 15 it is. 0004, about at 15 it is. 0004, about half the flu. The. 001 is playing out globally. Governor, you said february 24 the odds are we will lose more people to the flu. Combined, you had great instinct about the contagion and the mortality. Now, given the goal to increase Consumer Confidence to engage in commerce, and increase constituent confidence to live life as we come out of lockout, my question is, do you have a plan to strike the previous narrative that this is both highly contagious and 20 times more deadly . And is there a plan to get people confident that it is highly contagious, but has a low mortality rate, so people get out of fear . And what does that plan look like . Gov. Dewine im going to let doctor acton deal with the medical side. Look, it is contagious. As we find out more about it and we find out that it is more prevalent than we thought, more people who would test positive but do not show the signs, that, to me, indicates that it also is more dangerous, because people, it would appear at least, that people can be infecting other people and they do not know what. They do not know it. The person who is the host do not know that at all, and has no reason to take precautions. Obviously the other person does not know that at all. But we put together a plan based upon all the information that we have about how dangerous this is, but we also know it is dangerous not to have people working. And we know there are social consequences, medical consequences, so we are trying to balance the two. We think we have come up with a plan in may that starts us back pretty hard at it. And the plan would be as long as we are not seeing numbers that are horribly alarming, very alarming. We are going to continue down that pathway. But we are still losing, as we saw, we are losing a lot of ohioans every week, and that will probably continue. What we do not want to see is a massive spike in that. Dr. Acton thank you for the question. And i think one thing that is important for us to remember is at each step of the way we are going to learn more and more about this virus. So, what was known, say, on march 10, and each time we Say Something or make a decision, is in the context of that date. So let me tell you what we know now about mortality. Still not a lot. I mean, we have estimates coming out of china and other countries, but one of the problems you face with this virus is we do not have widespread testing. We do not yet know the prevalence in ohio or most places. We have got some preliminary prevalence information out of places like new york that have been able to do some testing. We hope to do that here soon. And the numerator and the denominator of this will continue to change as we can test more people. Deaths [no audio] so, our country is still very early in this pandemic relatively to other countries. So we look to what other countries see, and those actual fatality rates will take months, if not years to fully understand that data, because we will learn more and more about deaths that are attributed, deaths that have happened that were not yet attributed, like what we saw in california, where an autopsy, they found the virus in early parts of the year but that person was never diagnosed as dying from covid. So for now we do not know that. We know it is very infectious, we continue to know it is very deadly. I have to say some of those percentages were not correct in that last statement, but i think we will know fully that the mortality. We will be learning more about the morbidity and longterm effects on people getting sick, people who do not die, but the longterm effects on our health. So, all that is something we are yet to learn. Hi, everyone. This is Molly Martinez with spectrum news. You mentioned that dentists would be on the may 1 rollout. They are the first wave of people going back to work. Within the dental community, back in march when we were all hands on deck and everybody who had ppe had to donate it, dentists were part of that group, and they have not been able to replenish their ppe, and they feel very vulnerable going back to work not having those protections, and also working in a heightened, dangerous environment with aerosols and with peoples open mouths. So what would you say to them . Gov. Dewine we will certainly try to help them with the ppe. The choice about going back, assuming they have ppe, the choice to go back is certainly theirs. Its not a requirement that anybody go back. I understand if somebody would not want to do that. But again, with the ppe, they can make the decision to move forward. What we are faced with is we have, in particular regard to hospitals as well, people were deferring health care. Sometimes they were deferring health care not because of the order, but because they were afraid. And i understand the fear, but the hospitals are working very hard, doctors are working very hard to protect that person when they come in. So, while i understand the fear, theres also the problem of people deferring health care very long, particularly things like mammograms, things that need to be done. But you do not want to defer these things very long. So it is something when we looked at this to see what we could do in this area, it is something we felt we could open backup. Obviously it becomes an individual a choice between the doctor and the patient. Governor, hello, its todd from cincinnati. You talk about having Testing Capacity by the end of the 27,000 tests a day with a state that has a population of 11 million. How do you explain to ohioans that that would be enough tests . Is that enough . Or do you still want to achieve a much higher number than that . Gov. Dewine well, that is really not the entire testing, because it does not include private labs. As long as private labs contest, you get results back labs can test, you get results back quickly, they can rock n roll or whatever. Pharmacies are contracting with other folks to do testing. So i would expect testing to be more robust. What we are trying to come up with is what the number is that we are going to be able to do with the hospitals around the state, trying to drive two things. One, contact testing that goes along with the contacts, vice versa, as well as going in and being concerned and testing in Nursing Homes. And other kind of care facilities. Sampling those, doing that, so we can get a feel for what is going on. The numbers we see that we put board are what we think, and we think that will coincide with what were able to do in regard to tracing. With both of them up, we will have the ability to limit exposure, which is what we are trying to do, people who pick up this virus. Kevin landers. When you woke up this morning, how confident were you that this plan that you outlined today would not backfire . Dr. Acton, do you think the stayathome order in any way conflicts with your medical advice that you gave earlier about 14 days of seeing cases decrease . Thank you. Gov. Dewine i will go first and then dr. Acton can go. As Lieutenant Governor indicated, we are pretty good listeners. All of the members of the General Assembly have my cell phone, email, i have heard from a lot of them, but i have also heard from average citizens. We have consulted a lot of doctors, different experts. But all of the decisions are my decision. I take full responsibility for the decision. With any decision there is risk. Whatever we do today is a risk. Doing nothing is a risk. Letting the status quo continue is a risk. If we had done that, the big risk is our economy continues to go down, and all the bad things that go with that, all the social indicators and medical indicators that go the wrong way, that has to be factored in. When you make a decision like this, there is no easy decision. You try to balance all of the things. What we have going on, fortunately, number one, ohioans are doing a magnificent job. They got us here. Number two, we now have the testing. Number three, we have the tracing being ramped up in may. It seems the time that we can start to head down the pathway. We will be criticized from some people who say we should not have opened up at all. We will be criticized from others both are understandable opinions but others who would say we should not have opened up at all, others say not enough. I understand that. To the best of my ability, i think we have found the sweet spot, a spot that is most likely to cause less damage, more likely to cause good. But it is a risk, i fully understand the risk. Dr. Acton i will add that it has been my absolute honor to advise the governor all through this, as whole teams of people are. What we have to remember here is the entire country is trying to figure this out. Prior to this, there was no roadmap. In doing this, we have looked at every piece of advice there is something called a roadmap to recovery, a guide put together for all of the governors facing these incredibly hard decisions, that look at the best evidence from all the best folks in multiple sectors. There is not one, exact way going forward. I know that is hard for people because we want there to be a right way, but that is why i have always advised the governor to weigh all of these things and he is. I cannot tell you enough, as an ordinary person, as i was a year ago, you cannot imagine how much has to go into this. Again, it makes you humble, it gives me great pleasure to serve someone that has to make the hard decisions. But the truth is, as the governor has done, we need to layer this and go slowly, in a measured way, as he is trying to present. Make moves, dimmer switch, and be more surgical, and then we will learn from that, and then we will make adjustments. We will have to do audibles. You do all of your planning for the game, but you get up to the line, and you see what plays out. The governor will continue to make those decisions and lead us through. We will do that layer by layer. We had better get all the time that we use to measure it. We have better and better data all the time that we use to good boy that we use to measure it. We will work harder on testing, harder on ppe, build up our Contact Tracing, and all of that to the best of our ability all at once. And we will rely on you at home. We have been saying, stay at home. Ive been thinking a lot about healthy at home. We still want to limit our movement, stay six feet apart, we still want to selectively go out and do those errands. All of those things will continue to matter and add up. As we add more essentialness to our lives and try more things, we have to keep doing that, our individual role. Each business person, we have been giving the best advice to them, and i see them all rising to want to do that well. It will take all of us doing this, walking this journey stepbystep together. I hope that we realize this is a journey, and we are on the next stage of it. Thank you. Ben with abc 6. Governor, i wonder if you could elaborate on some of the businesses that will not be reopening right away like gyms and restaurants. If everything goes according to plan, and we do not see a spike in cases, how quickly could those businesses open, how large of a data set do you need . Are we talking weeks, months . Gov. Dewine i dont think we know. I wish i could tell people we can open everything today, and if not that, come up with a roadmap with dates on it. We really cannot do that. We have come up with things where we can get more people back to work while protecting those people. Its a question of protecting employees. It is a question of not seeing this spread. It is almost like on a continuum. Who can you get back to work with the least risk . There is always risk, but with any controlled environment, you can make it safe. A company, for example, that can enforce the six feet, have the masks, facial coverings, you do the sanitation, that is one environment. When you move to retail, it is less controlled. You can certainly control some things, but less control, more contact. Great desire to do hair. I fully get that. And we are going to get there. But again, we are talking very, very close contact. Even in masks, it is very close contact. Gyms again, a lot of people together, becomes a group of people. You can walk through each one of those. I dont think it is an exact science, but when you talk to people who study this, how things are spread, that can kind of give you a continuum. We started over here with things that we can control, we will end up over here. The last thing that comes in is when you have Mass Gatherings. Unfortunately, these are things we love, concerts, ballgames. I am not ruling out that you could not figure out, at some point, a way to do a baseball game for example, where you have people spread out, doing a lot of things. We are not ruling anything out, but that is sort of the continuum as we go forward. I will let the Lieutenant Governor who worked on the task force. Jon, anything to add to that . Lt. Gov. Husted the best way to explain it is, the businesses that are allowed to be reopened, they can meet the protocols. We know they can do this and create safe working environment. They have proven that they can do it over the course of the global pandemic. Many of these businesses have operated global operations, have said, you follow these protocols, we can do it. But when you start having a close interaction with people, that is when our Health Advisors get nervous about exacerbating the spread. If you do all of this at once, it is hard for them to know exactly what the cause was. When you stage it, you get a feel for how successfully you can do these things. As you build confidence, you can do more. All along, the compliance with what the governor is asking people to do, that lowers those numbers. Make sure the next thing comes sooner. Because we have addressed the issues. The more we do the things that stomp down the coronavirus as i say, we are going to isolate it, hunt it, kill it the faster we can do that, the faster things will come. Gov. Dewine let me state the obvious, every business is different. If you look at retail, we can envision a Retail Business going into, but probably does not get a lot of floor traffic. There is space. You could say that is less of a risk than other retail. When we went through is a situation where we needed to keep open essentials. You have to have food. What we have seen is Grocery Stores have developed a way of doing things. The oneway aisle. Im not sure that i would have figure that out, but they figured it out. Keeping people apart. Each business is different. We think by setting this date for retail, we are going to be able to get some Small Businesses back in the game. We know they have been out a long time. We know they have been hurt. Tragically, some of them may not be able to come back at all, but seeing this date, they can start planning, start moving forward. The cincinnati enquirer. If you are a worker who is at one of these places that is reopening and you have an underlying condition, and you are concerned about choosing between your health and your livelihood, is there any sort of recourse or protections are options for you . Gov. Dewine first of all, we would hope the employer, if at all possible, would make arrangements for that valuable employee. We dont know how long, but for a period of time not forever is at a higher risk that some of the other employees. We would hope that some of this gets worked out. We know that some things dont always get worked out. That would be the first thing that could take place. Will there be difficult decisions . Im sure there will be some difficult decisions. Lt. Gov. Husted i can add to that. I know the white house guidelines call for a phased in return to work, talk about accommodating vulnerable individuals as part of the third phase. This is what the business folks are part of. We want to encourage people, businesses to make sure the environment is comfortable for their employees. That is why we have all of these safety standards. We also know that if you for load a lot of people, just because we announced you could reopen, it is not flipping a light switch and everyone has jobs. You have to build a customer base, market for your product. That will take time. We encourage employers to phase individuals who may have health issues, in those vulnerable populations, to phase them in last, when we know things are working, we are defeating coronavirus, and we can create an even safer environment for them. We are asking businesses to keep that in mind as they make these hiring decisions. Adrian robbins, nbc 4. My question is for the Lieutenant Governor. We will see ohioans go back to work over the next two weeks, which is great news, but im still getting quite a few emails from people who have not seen any of their Unemployment Benefits and have been applying since what would you say to march. Someone who is heading back to work, never received the assistance, and now feels like they are being left behind . Lt. Gov. Husted as we have discussed on many occasions, the folks at the Unemployment Compensation system are continuing to ramp up. Your question provides me an opportunity to provide a little more color to this. 446,000 ohioans have been serviced through the system. They have paid out 1. 24 billion in benefits. For the individual you described who may be heading back to work before they get their Unemployment Compensation, they are still eligible for the compensation, from the day they were first deemed eligible. It will get backdated. If they take a job, they will be compensated for that time. That is how the system works. They now have 1657 employees at odjfs. I know they cut down the wait time on the phones. These are the kinds of things i want to see, but still not where i want to see it. Any time somebody is not acceptable to us. We can continue to urge pat ience. We know the system continues to improve but it is not serving everyone adequately. But to that person you talked about, continue to seek your application, benefits, if you are eligible for them, they will be on the way and backdated to the point they were first eligible. Question to the governor. The toledo blade. Did you consider a more geographic approach to your reopening rollout, given some areas of the state have seen fewer cases . Is it wise to treat the entire state the same way . Gov. Dewine we certainly did consider geographical approach. I know that that was suggested earlier this morning as a possible way to deal with this. But we are all in this together. Having 113 separate Health Departments making individual decision, i think would have been a disaster across the state of ohio. People would have been confused. You could do this in one health district. You go nextdoor and you could do Something Else. While im a great believer in local control, i have consulted a lot with mayors, other local officials throughout this process. I will continue to do that, talk with legislators a lot. I understand, like i said, im a big believer in local control. But the thought of having 113 different decisions made on every issue as we go across the state of ohio, this does not make any sense. If you were doing one thing in one district, and that some of the lives two miles over in another, doing that in just one area, it would be total confusion, would cause a lot of people to move around. I dont think it would work. Jon and i have talked about how to do this, the possibilities. Lt. Gov. Husted we heard those voices. Jim, you know that i grew up in northwest ohio. If you have one standard in surrounding counties, another where toledo is, you are going to have people from one county going to the next county. I will turn to dr. Acton to address this. That is the opposite of what we want to see happen. Then you are starting to mix populations and you cannot isolate the coronavirus, the entire concept behind testing. Dr. Acton this has been a very good question that we have discussed amongst my peers. You will see this discussion rising. I think its a matter of timing. We can see we are so interrelated, and outbreak anywhere affects someone else. We have to look at this globally. When you think about travel, as we move forward, that will be an issue. We need certain things to be national. Then we are going to have to look at it as states. Right now, we dont really know exactly how many cases we have or what is going on at the local level but we will try hard to study it. I think there is a time in the future where there will be more regional approaches, but we are just not there yet. I want to say, too, it is really important that we remember i want it to be clear that health is not nervous. We are not afraid. We are more determined than ever. I say this meaning that every advice we give is going to be based on the best and available science at the time that we have. We are very determined. I can tell you local Health Departments are doubling down. The governor was on the call with them today. We are doubling down. All the physicians and health care frontline providers of which im representing our doubling down to do better than ever. Our hospitals have made new partnerships with Nursing Homes and prisons and local Health Departments that have never existed in the state. We are innovating and doubling down. Our frontline First Responders are doubling down. So i just want people to know, we will do this wisely, responsibly, and we will double down our efforts. When we make these choices we make, to go slow, to go fast, that is the best way to ensure our economy gets going. Thank you. Gov. Dewine i want to turn to the Lieutenant Governor on a different subject, jon . Lt. Gov. Husted i got a couple of texts from people asking about masks, what the governor is asking people to do with regard to masks. This is not an idea that came from us, but from the business group, who said essentially lets go back to work. We will wear masks. This is the dilemma they have. They want employees to come back. They want customers to come back. They know the more comfort and confidence you can build amongst the workforce, amongst the consumers out there, the more business they will ultimately have, the better they will be able to serve people. This was a recommendation out of the Business Task force, because they wanted to build the confidence. We use the term face coverings. I want to make sure we understand what that means. When we talk about masks, people think about this. Then you have the one that i wear that my daughter made, a cutup tshirt. Last night, i used an old tshirt, pin, over my nose, mouth. It is like a bandana. You can use a bandana. It is really just something to your mouth,ose in which is what the recommendation is. There is no mandate, we cannot make you wear one when you are walking down the street or going to your neighbors house, but we are recommending it. We know it keeps people safer. These are the best recommendations, and they are not something that just came from us. They are things that businesses said. We would like to have this, we want to build confidence in our employees so that they know we are doing everything we can to keep the environment safe, building an environment where customers will come back. I wanted to take a moment to address that because i know we are getting some questions. Governor, you might want to add. Gov. Dewine one thing. None of this will last forever. We are going to get through this. Now, we are not going to get through this in two weeks, but we are going to get through this. We will not have to do these things, but for us to be able to push forward, to get people to work, we have got to take the safety precautions. Not only have i heard from a lot of people about this who are concerned about some of the things we are requiring, but i have heard from a lot of employees who tell me, i want to be safe when i go back to work. I have heard a lot of families of employees who say, when i go back to work, i want to be safe. How are you going to ensure that ill be safe . The answer is i cannot guarantee anyones safety, but we can do the things that we know will dramatically increase the odds for us, or for those employees. For anyone who does not think an employee wearing facial covering is a good idea, i would ask them to talk to that employee. Talk to the ones who are worried about their safety. All of the things you saw on the board a moment ago, we will work through very carefully, in consultation with experts, but also with businessmen and women, who put these things together and said i want to ensure my employees are safe. Facial covering is not something i grew up with, not something that most of us grew up with. And it is not something that will be with us forever. But during this time of crisis, if we want to get back to work, we have to do the logical things to protect them. And to not do it would be negligent. To not do it would be a mistake. We have to protect these employees. Good afternoon. Ben schwartz. Governor dewine, we have been getting a lot of questions sent in from parents of young children, wondering what their summers will look like. I know you have started to roll out your plan today with the emphasis we are taking it slow for important reasons. I want to ask, have you had any conversations about opening up things like pools or summer camps with decreased numbers of people there . Gov. Dewine we have certainly looked at about everything. We hear from people, i get texts, emails about summer camp, people who run summer camps. We have not really made a decision on that. I wish we could. We have to see how we do at this stage. What i would advise anyone who runs a summer camp or Something Else, start thinking through how you might be able to do the social distancing. Obviously, it is not particularly easy. But if there are ways to do it, have that child get the benefit of doing what they have been doing in the past, that would be a good thing. We are just not ready at this point to be able to make that decision. Again, we have to see how this works, take this one week at the time. Wlio in lima. My question is for the governor and Lieutenant Governor, if we could return to the face coverings once again. Many on social media say this is ineffective. How are you recommending to the businesses to enforce their rules within the stores, how they should go about people refusing to wear them inside the stores . Gov. Dewine well, dr. Acton talked about the effectiveness. We have talked a lot about this up here. My understanding, it is more you are protecting that other person, the other person is protecting you. If a clerk in a store is wearing it, the customer is wearing it, we are protecting each other. It will be up to the store to regulate that. Beyond that, it is the Health Department. But we are not about trying to make things onerous just to do it. We are trying to be able to protect people. What every person who i have who understands the Science Behind this says, you do the social distancing, and if you add, both people are all people have some sort of facial coverings, you will dramatically increase your chances of not getting the virus, if one of those people happens to be shedding, happens to be contagious. You are increasing your odds. We have a small environment or a bigger environment, depending on the size of your store. It is not just for the protection for the person wearing it. In fact, it is more the protection of other people. You can require in that business, saying both parties have that, then you have added to that protection. Lt. Gov. Husted i will add one thing. This is the feedback we got from businesses. We want them because we want to go faster, we want to get through this. We know this is an effective tool so we can slow the spread. They like the idea we were wire it so its not necessarily in them to do it. Flareupst want to have in their own businesses. Because they know in many cases that if that happens, they are going to have to shut down and it could be very disruptive. Many of the things that we are asking here are already being effectively done in businesses that are operating. Those are the best practices. That is what they encourage that we do because we all want to get through this. These are the temporary things the governor mentioned that we can do to get through this so that we can move on to a less restrictive way of living. Dr. Acton thank you. I want to agree with that. We want to empower you as an individual to have the tools you need. We are trying to help businesses have the tools they need. This mask, i feel peoples pain on this one because im one of those people that has a fan going and i want lots of air movement. In other cultures, this has become a symbol of courtesy to each other, care for each other because they realize having gone through fairy a few of these epidemics that this made a difference. We know this is added. Science is showing that it makes a difference. Symptomatically transmitted, so i might be carrying it and not know it and what i do might affect someone else who doesnt have the opportunity to go back to work as the worker takes it home to a spouse or child who is already sick. So this really is going to be one of those collective things that i, myself, have to keep putting around my neck and keep reminding myself that what im doing is bigger than me, its for all of us, helping us move forward and move the economy forward. Good afternoon. I have a question about the Contact Tracing workforce. First, the numbers that you specified, were those in addition to the local Health Workers here . And what kind of Clinical Skills and Language Skills and other skills does someone need to be able to be a part of this workforce . Ill start gov. Dewine ill start. My understanding is that 1750 is the total, which includes what Health Departments already have. As you know, they do this every day, just not on as bigger scale. They will add to that. They are he more people. Hire more they will people. We will have some people surging in. Thats where the 1750 comes from as far as the skill set, i think it is important that the people who are hired have the ability to communicate with the communities that are impacted. So, if there is a language situation, if a community has a number of languages spoken, the health apartment would want people to could speak those languages if possible. One of the things that partners in health have learned around the world, when you get a local health care worker, the most important thing is that they can relate to the person theyre talking to. Most of these will be over the phone. Most of the interviews will be over the phone. Just the ability to relate to that person. To find out from them who they may have been in contact with. This is something we will be looking for. When we have hotspots in one community or another. Thatcton i would just add this photo disease investigation is something that is going on all the time with all sorts of an actress diseases. Our local Health Departments are very skilled at this. A widealways involved range of people and talents and we have always used community Health Workers. What partners in health is doing with their program is a very specific training. We can help folks to expand the workforce and be specifically able to take the skill set to meet people where they are at and be the kind of person to talk to. I can tell you that my experience in this field over 30 years is that people love talking to someone. They love knowing that if they were at risk, they might have been exposed. They love the help and what to do next. Talk to your doctor, here is what we should look for, here are the symptoms, call us if you need help. This is a helping thing. People really experience it this way. It has been going on all along. As we get about and move about more, we will all come into contact with people more and therefore it is just a volume that is now estimated greater than anyone has had in the work prior to this. Im very excited about it. Im really excited about meeting everyone where they are at. That is so essential in this. We dont want to leave anyone behind. Thank you. Hi, governor. Ohio public radio and television. Im wondering if you can talk a little bit more about enforcement. Do Companies Face a seconddegree misdemeanor if they are not following these rules . How confident are you that these standards are going to be enforced . Gov. Dewine we have had very good experience when issuing the first orders. Were there a few exceptions . Well, sure. But by and large ohioans did everything they could to comply. These were enforced by local Health Departments. They can be enforced by the police. But what we found in the last number of weeks since the first orders went into effect is really how they are in fourstar by individuals in the workplace who are concerned about the environment that is not good enough or safe enough. You know, people in the public who say that this situation is not right. I think it is almost going to be selfand worst in that sense. Rightnforced is not the word, i guess. But i think there will be Community Pressure to make sure that people provide a safe place, first with manufacturing and then a few days later, when we get to the point of retail. And again, i think people are beginning to really understand that for example if there is something on your face, it is a courtesy to the other person, more than a protection to you. Its a mutual courtesy and i think that people will start to understand that. Again, its not forever. We are at the point where you wont necessarily wear them to a store. We are just not there yet. Governor, this is laura from cleveland. Com. You said that the stayathome order is still in effect. When our favorite boutiques and stores open, people are understandably going to want to patronize them. Arent you more or less lifting the stayathome order . That if i think you look at what we are really asking people to do, we are asking them to do pretty much what they have been doing. Be reasonable, be rational, dont take huge chances. If you want to go walk, thats great. If you want to go to the state park, thats great. In the past, theyve been able to go to the Grocery Store and the pharmacy. Now they might do some other retail. Just use some common sense in how they do that. Wear the protection, try to keep your distance. In reality, it is a common sense approach to how you deal with a situation that is still a dangerous situation. Everyone is still just as susceptible to coming down with covid19. So, we decided to just keep the stayathome order, but as you know, it has many exceptions. You know, people need to go get groceries, they need to go to the pharmacy. They need to do help a neighbor. They can do all these things. Again it will come down not so much to what i say, it comes down to what ohioans actually do. Not what i say, but really what ohioans do. I think they will continue to use common sense, they will continue to make rational decisions. You know, this is going to give them under this order, with these businesses back it going, it will give people some more options and more things that they can do. We are, its a step forward as we move forward. But the stayathome order is just that signal that things are still dangerous. We dont wave a flag and say , everything is safe, because its not. What we have been trying to do is tell you the truth the best we knew the truth, the best we knew the facts. When i started this press conference, i started it this way for a reason. There are essential facts that our essential facts. One, you have all done it great job. Two, covid19 is still out there and just as dangerous as it ever has been. Three, we still have the same tools, now we have a few more tools then we had before. We have got to use those tools. The distancing is probably more important than anything else. Follow that, you will layer over it with the mask and the facial covering. Hello, governor. This question might be for the Lieutenant Governor. May 1 comes, new businesses start opening, they get the employee receives employment benefits. Unemployment benefits. Now going back to work with the coronavirus in a few days, with this person, with a be allowed to reapply for unemployment . If that person was selfquarantined . Lt. Gov. Husted im not sure i heard the question correctly. I think what i heard is if someone goes to work on may 1, could they still be eligible for the benefits they didnt receive earlier, is that correct . No, if they go back to work and get ill through going to work lt. Gov. Husted yes, yes. If they go back to work and get ill, that will be the policy that maintains. If your employer sends you home and you dont have a sick leave policy or benefits, which i believe most employers can and should provide you in those cases, the reason is they shouldnt want you at work. If you get ill, your employer shouldnt wonder what work. Want to you at work. They should want you home immediately and as a matter of required to do that under the order. To get you home, to get you medical care if that is the place you need to go. Under our order that would be, if that would be a sustained period and you didnt have benefits from your employer, you could apply for Unemployment Compensation benefits until you got well. Those are the rules now and they wont change as we go forward. Good afternoon, governor. Randy ludlow with the columbus dispatch. Couple of things. You faced a lot of pressure to reopen more and more quickly than what you authorized today, including some of your republicans saying reopen everything on friday. How easy was it to hold out against that pressure . And whats the rationale of waiting two more weeks to open retail . Gov. Dewine the rationale for waiting two more weeks is that we are layering it in. We dont know the impact of doing one thing and it takes a while to start seeing that. If you layer these things in, you have to move forward, which we hope will my be in a position where you have to fall back. Talking earlier about the continuum, every business is different. Most construction would be in manufacturing or construction, but most construction would be outside you have the ability to control the environment. Retail, you can control the environment, but it is certainly in a closer situation. Most people when put on the scale of the safest to the not as safe with Mass Gatherings over here, we would put the retail here. We wanted to delay a little bit, there are a lot of businessmen and women that need to get back and start opening up. Its a balance. Its a balance we have been dealing with on everything that we do. Ohioans have done a great job. That we have more and more tracing, those two things make may and the fact that as you saw on the ina that we are going down most things, hospitalizations for example, made this an opportune time to do it. Still outrus is there. It is still killing people. It is not going to go away. We know the more that we open and i talked about last week, the more you open up, the more contact you have, no matter how healthy you are, the number of incidents with cases are probably going to go up. That was part of your question. I dont think i answered the other part. Was there another part of the question . A lot of people, including fellow republicans, are calling on you to open up everything immediately. Obviously, you disagree with them. Look. Ewine these are a balance. To throw the doors open on may 1 and say get rid of the stayathome order, get rid of everything, would be totally irresponsible. I have an obligation as the governor of this state to do two things right now. Work every day, get people back to work and keep them safe. That would not be consistent with keeping people safe. There is nothing that has really changed. Other than ohioans have done a bang up job. But if ohioans go back to business as usual, you know, this thing is going to go straight back up. The curve is going to go straight back up. More ohioans will die. Im not going to do that. Im trying to balance the harm from the economy, while understanding also that for business to really come back, people have to feel safe. So, ohioans have to feel safe. That means employees have to feel safe, customers have to feel safe. The way that we are doing this today is the best guarantee we can have that ohioans will feel safe, that they can start back in, into retail, go into the stores, that there are protections in place for them. And that they can go back to work and that their employer has got the rules and regulations that have been put forward by the business community. The best practices that we know of so that they can go back to work, that is how we get the people of ohio back to work. As my friend Frank Sullivan told me a couple hours ago when i was talking to him on the phone, this idea of getting people back to work and [no audio] opposed to each other, he said thats crazy. He said we can walk and chew gum , at the same time, we can do these things. Im convinced ohioans are. I have confidence in ohioans. Im optimistic about the future, but i wont be reckless about it either. That was the last question for today. Gov. Dewine ok, wow. All right. We know that over the last several weeks ohioans have stepped up in so many ways to protect each other from the virus and im so grateful. All of your efforts remind me of by wellknown hymn written ohio composer will thompson. Will thompson was born in East Liverpool in 1847 and graduated from the college there. The lyrics from his song, which my soninlaw bill reminded me of, this is what the song is. Have i done any good. Those lyrics capture really the soul of ohio and how the people are always there to help other, others in need. Let me read you just a little bit from these lyrics. Have i done any good . I wont sing it. Have i done any good in the world today. Have i helped anyone in need . Have i made someone feel glad . If not, i have failed. Has anyones burden and lighter today because i was able to share . Have the sick gotten help on their way, have they gotten the help they needed . Was i there . There are chances for work all around us, now, opportunities not to let pass by while saying sometime i will try, but go into something today. It is noble of man to work and to give. Only he who does something helps others to live, to guide each good work that we know, waking up to do something more rather than dream in a mansion above. Doing good is a pleasure, a blessing of duty and love. End of quote. Ohioans have done so very much good. I see it every single day. You flattened the curve, you cap youve capped the hospitals from being overrun. Youve done so much to save lives and you have saved lives. We have to keep it up so we can beat the spread of the virus and get back to the things that we like to do that brings us joy. The columbus zoo and the wilds are two of my Favorite Places to visit. My grandchildren and our children. We have taken a number of our children to the columbus zoo. Theres a picture of parker and it looks like jack, there. Fran and myself. That was last year. We have taken a number of the kids there. The columbus zoo and the wilds are of course close right now, but the animals are still there. Lets take a look at the video. Today, our entrance is closed. The pens are empty. And our public spaces, quiet. We are reminded of something that is core to who we are. We have a responsibility to care for one another. Our zoo is not just about the incredible wildlife. Its also about the people. Our community. And our planet. We are all connected. We look forward to the day when we can all be together again. Sharing with people the experiences. Creating the memories that last a lifetime. Touching hearts, changing minds. Until then, remember. That we are all in this together. We are all in this together. Thank you all for what you have done so far as we continue on this journey. Stay strong, everybody. See you tomorrow at 2 00. Cspans washington journal, life every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Morning, weesday will discuss how Contact Tracing can combat the covid19 pandemic with a Senior Research associate at John Hopkins School of health , and then we will talk about chinas role in the coronavirus pandemic with the Wilson Center is robert daly. Also, a discussion of georgia reopening parts of its economy amid the coronavirus pandemic yard first with the 10th district republican congressman and later with georges second district, democratic congressman, sanford bishop. Watch washington journal Tuesday Morning and be sure to watch washington journal on sunday at 9 00 a. M. Eastern for a look back 50 years to the antiwar student protest at kent state which erupted into a deadly confrontation between students and the Ohio National guard. Join the discussion