State: Ohio National Guard members to help in 2nd prison

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Members of the National Guard are being trained to help at a second Ohio prison as coronavirus infections among correctional workers continue to spread, the state prisons agency said Friday.

The guard members will assist with “mission critical functions” at Marion Correctional Facility, said JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The State Highway Patrol is also helping guard the prison’s perimeter, Smith said.

The latest figures show 95 staffers at the Marion prison have tested positive for the virus, more than a quarter of the total staff of about 350. At Pickaway Correctional Facility, where some members of the Ohio National Guard already were sent to supplement medical staffing, 48 of about 340 employees had positive tests.

In Marion, 217 inmates tested positive, along with 149 at Pickaway, according to Department of Rehabilitation and Correction data. A total of 184 staff members statewide have tested positive, along with 489 inmates.

Four prisoners at Pickaway and one guard at Marion have died of COVID-19.

“We are monitoring staffing at all institutions on a daily basis and direct internal staffing resources to different prisons when needed,” Smith said in an email.

The head of the corrections officers union at the Allen Oakwood Correctional Institute said morale is “in the toilet.” Guards have complained that safety concerns are being ignored and that they have been denied emergency stipend pay, Shawn Gruber told The Lima News.

Guards at Marion and elsewhere are being directed to work 12- and 16-hour shifts to compensate for the staff shortages, Christopher Mabe, president of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, said Friday.

Mabe himself is under quarantine with mild coronavirus symptoms after his wife, a guard at Lorain Correctional Institution, tested positive for the virus, the union said Friday.

In other coronavirus-related developments Friday:

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ECONOMY

Gov. Mike DeWine was expected to provide more details about his Thursday announcement that some Ohio businesses could begin reopening after May 1 as long as proper precautions are taken amid the pandemic.

Ohio’s unemployment rate jumped to 5.5% in March, up from 4.1% in February, which was also the rate in March 2019. Employment dropped by almost 40,000 in March, according to the Department of Job and Family Services.

The owner of a northern Ohio racetrack that hosts dozens of events each year, including the National Hot Rod Association series, vowed to open this summer. “I’m not asking. I’m opening,” said Summit Motorsports Park owner Bill Bader Jr.

The first 300 cases of a planned 100,000 servings of seafood arrived Friday at Cincinnati’s Freestore Foodbank, donated by SeaPak Shrimp and Seafood Co. and Budweiser for COVID-19 relief help. The Foodbank serves people in 20 counties in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Foodbanks in Ohio and nationwide are seeing unprecedented visits as unemployment hits record highs.

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CASES

To date, Ohio has confirmed more than 8,400 cases and 389 deaths, according to new federal guidelines that allow cases and deaths considered “probable” COVID-19 infections without a positive test.

The pandemic has caused more than 2,300 hospitalizations in Ohio, with more than 700 people needing treatment in intensive care units.

Health care workers account for 20% of the overall cases in the state. Nursing homes have reported more than 800 cases, or about one in 10.

For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in a couple of weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems are at higher risk of more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.

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Associated Press writers John Seewer in Toledo and Dan Sewell in Cincinnati contributed to this report.