A heartland American state tackles Covid-19 head-on
- Ohio’s Governor DeWine has led the way in the fight against the coronavirus, even taking the brave step of shutting bars before St Patrick’s Day
- Rather than resent the economic hit, residents toast him and use his daily press conferences as an excuse to have a ‘Wine with DeWine’
In the suburb of Brecksville, Ohio, two sisters who have been out of school indefinitely since before St. Patrick’s Day have put pictures they’ve painted to pass the time in their windows.
“First shamrocks and today rainbows,” says their mother Melissa Wain Hinchman, 42. “The kids can walk or drive around the neighbourhood and see each other’s art work.”
Surprisingly, it was their heartland state that flipped from Obama blue to Trump red in the 2016 presidential election that led the way. Unlike the leaders of his Republican Party in Washington, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine responded early – decisively and dramatically – with moves that an impressed Washington Post called a “national guide to the crisis”.
As of Thursday, Ohio had 2,902 of the 240,120 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the US and 81 of the more than 5,794 deaths. By contrast, neighbouring Michigan, with a slightly smaller population, was slower to take action and had nearly 11,000 cases and 417 dead – the third-worst hit state after the far more populous New York-New Jersey hotspot, and ahead of California.
