COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine said Friday he is deploying the Ohio National Guard to help with staffing shortages across the state in hospitals dealing with rising numbers of coronavirus patients.
DeWine said starting Monday, 1,050 guard members will begin to be deployed at hospitals across the state, strategically targeting the Northeast Ohio area, where he said the staffing problem is the worst, including Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Wooster. The deployment has no set end date.
DeWine announced the National Guard deployment during a virtual news conference on Friday morning. For the first time since the pandemic began, his staff said the governor would only accept pre-screened questions from reporters that were related to the announcement. Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer did not agree to the condition and did not submit a question.
The governor, who is isolating following a possible COVID-19 exposure on Monday, held the news conference from the governor’s ceremonial residence in suburban Columbus. He said he and First Lady Fran DeWine received a negative coronavirus test result Friday morning, but will continue to limit their public schedule and undergo additional testing in the coming days…