Why stopping the spread matters in Ohio

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Why Ohio’s effort to slow the new

CORONAVIRUS is important to everyone State officials announced on March 11 that they estimate that 1% of Ohioans are already infected with the new coronavirus. That 1% is roughly 117,000 people.

The number of new infections is estimated to to double every six days due to “community spread.”

1%

is about

117,000 people

Ohio population:

11.7M

117K

By March 17, the number of new infections could be 234,000 — roughly the population of Warren County...

...and more than the population of Akron.

Akron

234K

198K

Six days after that, March 23, it's 468,000 people — a little more than the population of Lucas County, which includes Toledo. Lucas Co.

OHIO

Lucas Co.

468K

430K

Six days after that, March 29, it’s 936,000 — more than the population of Hamilton County or the city of Columbus.

Hamilton Co.

817K

Columbus

936K

896K

If 80% of those 1.9 million have little to no symptoms, that’s still 374,400 people who need more care.

Six days after that, April 4, it's 1.9 million people — or roughly 1 of every 10 Ohioans. 1.9M

That’s more than the population of Cincinnati. And a little less than the population of Cleveland.

400K 350K 300K 250K 200K 150K 100K 50K 0

374,400

384,400

People who could need more care

Population of Cleveland

303,000

Population of Cincinnati

This is why officials are trying to flatten the curve of cases — to slow down how fast the virus spreads, so the infections don’t reach the potential high levels, and so that medical facilities can keep up.

Number of daily cases

Without protective measures

Health care system capacity With protective measures

Days since first case SOURCES: Press conferences by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton; U.S. Census Bureau population estimates; CDC; USA TODAY

Mark Wert and Michael Nyerges /THE ENQUIRER


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