CLEVELAND — On Friday evening, the city of Cleveland provided an update on its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The city reports that there were 16 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the last 24 hours. There are now 164 confirmed cases in Cleveland, with two people dead. The new cases include males and females, whose ages range from their 20’s to 80’s. CDPH is working to identify any close contacts of these residents who would require testing or monitoring for symptoms of COVID-19.
As of Friday, there have been more than 266,000 confirmed cases and 6,900 deaths related to COVID-19 in the United States. The state of Ohio reports 3,312 confirmed cases and 91 deaths.
On Friday, Mayor Frank Jackson held a briefing to talk more about the city's preparations for an upcoming surge in COVID-19 cases. Officials from both the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals announced plans to increase their capacity to help deal with the expected increase in patients. The Cleveland Clinic says it will be increasing the number of beds in its system from 3,000 to 8,000, including a bump in intensive care unit beds from 500 to 2,500.
University Hospitals, meanwhile, is planning to increase its capacity by 300 percent, taking its total number of beds to 6,000.
Also, the Cleveland Police Department has initiated new procedures to protect all officers who could face increased risk of being exposed to the coronavirus.
“About three and a half weeks ago, we went to single-person cars for all of our operations,” Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said during the press conference.
In doing so, there’s no close contact between any officers as they patrol in their vehicles.
Additionally, anybody an officer puts inside their vehicle is put into a mask prior to sitting inside the cruiser. If a person is showing symptoms of coronavirus and needs to put in the cruiser, officers will wear additional protective gear like masks and gloves.
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