The head of Ohio’s Department of Health says at least one percent of the state’s population could already be infected by the coronavirus.
“We know now, just the fact of community spread, says that at least 1 percent, at the very least, 1 percent of our population is carrying this virus in Ohio today,” Amy Acton, the head of Ohio’s Department of Health, said on Thursday.
“We have 11.7 million people. So the math is over 100,000. So that just gives you a sense of how this virus spreads and is spreading quickly,” she added.
This is huge: Ohio Health Dept. Director Amy Acton is saying that evidence of community spread indicates that 1% of Ohioans are currently carrying coronavirus. That's *117,000* people.
— Tyler Buchanan (@Tylerjoelb) March 12, 2020
Only 5 in Ohio have actually tested positive to this point. pic.twitter.com/lae7T6W5jN
However, Acton added that it is hard to get an exact number of people infected because of limited availability to get tested.
“Our delay in being able to test has delayed our understanding of the spread of this,” she said.
Acton’s comments come after Dr. Anthony Facui, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said the lack of accessibility for coronavirus testing is a “failing.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) also said the number of infected individuals is probably a lot higher than reported but has not been detected because of a lack of widespread testing.
“If you actually had testing capacity, you would see how high the numbers are already. And as we do ramp up testing, you’re going to see those numbers go sky high.”
Currently, data from Johns Hopkins University shows that there 1,323 confirmed cases in the country with 38 deaths from the virus.
