Karen Kasler

Bars and restaurants in Ohio closed on March 15, and the stay at home order took effect March 23. And the state is now starting to feel the financial effects of those and other restrictions imposed to halt the spread of coronavirus.

Some Ohio breweries have switched from producing alcohol to making hand sanitizer. Other companies are making or recycling medical grade masks needed by doctors and nurses on the front lines, and some have donated medical supplies. But state leaders are not just relying on the state’s businesses to meet those demands.

Over 468,000 Ohioans have filed for unemployment in the last two weeks – that’s nearly a third more than the total number filed last year.  The coronavirus restrictions have been a huge blow to workers who lost their jobs, and the fallout has created a tremendous strain on the system that’s set up to help them.

Ohio has gotten all that it’s likely to get from the National Strategic Stockpile of medical supplies – a plane dropped off gowns, gloves, coveralls, face shields, surgical masks and N-95 masks in Columbus Tuesday. But the state says it’s not enough for now or through the surge of COVID-19 patients that is expected in the near future.

Backers of a planned fall ballot issue seeking to raise the minimum wage in Ohio to $13 by 2025 have filed a lawsuit, saying Gov. Mike DeWine’s coronavirus restrictions have halted their effort.  The group says it wants more time and lowered requirements.

Nearly 200,000 Ohioans have filed unemployment claims in the last two weeks, and more are likely to need those benefits soon. But many are reporting still having problems getting through either by the phone lines or online, as the state has been struggling to keep up with a system not built for this kind of volume.

The Food and Drug Administration has given the go-ahead to Columbus-based Battelle for its full request to sterilize 80,000 N-95 surgical masks per machine per day, after issuing a letter earlier in the day permitting far less. And it comes after pressure from Ohio officials.

With a 30 percent increase in confirmed coronavirus cases in 24 hours and a new total of 19 deaths, new projections on the spread of coronavirus in Ohio suggest the state could be seeing 10,000 cases a day by the time it peaks.

The bill that made some changes across state law related to coronavirus also set a new ending for the Ohio primary, after polling places were shut down just hours before election day.

The legislation making changes across a variety of state policies because of coronavirus also settled an issue that lawmakers had been struggling with for months. That’s the question of how many students would qualify next school year for the state’s largest private school voucher program.

Seventeen people have been tested for coronavirus in five Ohio prisons – 13 results were negative and the rest are pending, and those inmates are in isolation. Those numbers come from a new daily update that the state is now providing on testing in prisons and youth facilities. 

In a strong showing of unity, state lawmakers have unanimously passed a bill making a lot of changes in state law related to the response to coronavirus – but they stress that they’re only temporary. The package now goes on to Gov. Mike DeWine.

The number of deaths from COVID-19 doubled from yesterday - going from three deaths announced Sunday to six today. And Gov. Mike DeWine has issued several orders to state government as it fights coronavirus, saying that he expects state revenues to go to go down dramatically.

The numbers of Ohioans filing for unemployment benefits are rising daily – so many that the state’s unemployment website was having trouble handling them. And the state is now clarifying why it will no longer do daily releases about how many people are filing jobless claims.

Gov. Mike DeWine says the state is limiting prescriptions of two drugs used for malaria and rheumatoid arthritis, after interest in those drugs spiked when President Trump tweeted out that they could be used to treat COVID-19.

The Ohio National Guard is being deployed on Monday to help with the state’s coronavirus response. But the Guard’s leader wants to make it clear what they will not be doing.

The attorney general is advising Ohio’s courts that they can suspend jury trials to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Nearly 180 charter schools will have to change how they do business or shut down under a new bipartisan bill introduced in the Ohio House. It's the latest attempt to crack down on charter schools.