State officials are trying to raise awareness about the importance of everyone doing their part in preventing the spread of coronavirus. As the Ohio Department of Health explains, this is a population health crisis, and containing the virus takes a group effort.
Dr. Amy Acton, Ohio Department of Health director, says people in the state need to do what they can to slow the spread of the coronavirus in order to avoid flooding hospitals with patients.
As she puts it, everyone taking precautionary measures such as washing hands and avoiding large groups contains the outbreak.
"The choices I make for me and my family it might not affect us but it's going to affect your grandmother. My not getting sick is going to keep three other, two to three other people, from getting sick and that is logarithmic. Each of those people can infect two to three more and that's what you're seeing in Italy now," says Acton.
In the span of two weeks, Italy went from 60 coronavirus cases to more than 10,000.
Gov. Mike DeWine is urging people and organizations to practice social distancing, which he says can be a major disruption.