Ohio National Guard Deploys To Help Hospitals Amid COVID-19 Surge

OHIO — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Friday he has deployed 1,050 members of the Ohio National Guard to help relieve the hospital staffing strain caused by the increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Of the total mobilized guard members, approximately 150 are highly-trained medical professionals and will deploy to help meet critical needs at hospitals and testing locations, DeWine said. The remaining 900 guard members will help with patient transport, housekeeping, and food services.

Guard members will be brought on duty beginning on Monday.

The Ohio Department of Health said it's also working with an Ohio health care staffing company to help meet hospital staffing needs. This agreement will allow for Ohio hospitals to bring in qualified nurses and other providers from out-of-state to fill needed positions to help ease some of the current added pressure on hospitals and staff.

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More than 4,700 people are currently hospitalized in Ohio fighting COVID-19, which equates to one in every 5 hospital patients. This is the highest number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 this year, and the number of hospitalized patients is rapidly approaching an all-time high.

Due to the increase in COVID-19 hospital admissions many hospitals have been forced to postpone elective surgeries, transfer patients to other hospitals, impose visitation standards, and/or implement what they call “crisis standards of care,” in which they have no choice but to take extraordinary steps to care for patients in ways that aren’t typical, such as providing intensive care in emergency rooms or in post-surgical units.

In Northern Ohio most hospitals have suspended elective surgeries. In Central and Southeast Ohio, the same thing is beginning to happen. In Southeast Ohio, hospital leaders are preparing to take similar action.

As of Friday, Ohio reported 10,025 new cases of COVID-19, one of the highest daily case counts seen in 2021, and the addition of 434 deaths marked the highest total since the state began reporting deaths twice a week in the spring, Cleveland.com reported.

Ohio’s death toll since the beginning of the pandemic early last year now stands at 28,028.