<![CDATA[A heartland American state tackles Covid-19 head-on]>
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."
Her family is among the nearly 12 million residents in Ohio coping with a totally changed " and unrecognisable " way of life as the United States strives to socially distance itself from the deadly coronavirus.
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".
Four-year-old Hinchman twins, Lillian and Emma, are making the best out of a bad coronavirus situation by creating art and displaying it in their windows. Photo: Melissa Wain Hinchman
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.
DeWine began his war on the virus by declaring a state of emergency on March 9. Three days later he closed all Ohio schools, making it the first state to do so even though it had only confirmed five cases of Covid-19 at the time. No one expects them to reopen before the current academic year ends in early June.
Thus, like many Ohio colleagues, preschool teacher Kristen Marian has reached out online. "I have set up remote learning for all of my students," says. "Yesterday we had a great session of English 4 via Google Meets and we had a lot of students participate."
On March 15, DeWine ordered all bars to shut and restaurants to halt dine-in operations, virtually wiping out lucrative St Patrick's day profits. As The Washington Post noted, by the following day "they were turning out the lights in New York, New Jersey and Maryland, too".
Republican Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio. Photo: AP
DeWine was also the first governor to postpone a state's presidential primary, hours before polls were to open on March 17. Next, he issued a stay-at-home order that has virtually shut down the state, now extended to May 1.
This came after he, state health officials, hospitals and researchers brainstormed with researchers at Ohio State University's Infectious Diseases Institute to learn what to expect from the virus in the weeks ahead to better prepare for it.
Models revealed that Ohio avoided a rapid spike to 62,000 cases because of DeWine's moves and the use of "contact tracing" to find people who may have been infected.
Prof Joe Tien, co-director of the Institute's Ecology, Epidemiology and Population Health Thematic Programme, told the Cincinnati Enquirer: "The model is trying to produce an estimate of hospital need for Ohio's 88 counties."
An empty car park on a sunny Thursday afternoon at a usually busy Starbucks and Best Cuts salon in the Cleveland area. Photo: Paul Zach
Since then, businesses from small hair salons and boutiques to sprawling casinos, cinemas and malls have closed. Supermarkets raised wages for workers, urged social distancing and installed plastic partitions between shoppers and cashiers at checkout counters.
Despite the economic devastation for Cleveland, the rock 'n' roll Hall of Fame not only closed but postponed its nationally televised May 2 induction extravaganza for stars such as Depeche Mode, Doobie Brothers and Whitney Houston, along with an entire week's worth of related events that generate millions of dollars for the city.
On Thursday, NBA superstar and Akron, Ohio, native LeBron James, tweeted his disappointment that his current Los Angeles Lakers team could not play a scheduled match here that day, noting he had "been so looking forward ... to playing in front of my family, friends, and fans ..."
Extraordinary crowds had been expected to descend on the now-deserted downtown, as it was also opening day of the baseball season, also postponed indefinitely.
Indeed, the arrival of spring is boom time for businesses where Americans come out of hibernation and gather in droves. On a positive note, with fewer planes and cars in sight, skies seem bluer than usual, and days and nights more peaceful.
Customers checkout behind a plastic partition at a Heinen's grocery store in a Cleveland, Ohio suburb. Photo: Paul Zach
DeWine, 73, continues to hold daily press conferences. "In a sense these were tough decisions, but in a sense, they were not," he said.
"This is life and death." In fact, his sessions have become must-viewing for many Ohioans " with a glass of wine, of course " spawning a Wine With DeWine Twitter hashtag, T-shirts, and even home deliveries from Ohio wineries.
And on Friday, Dr Tom Mihaljevic, president and CEO of the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic which is now turning its health education campus into a 'surge hospital', told a national TV audience: "We are seeing some encouraging signs. The number of patients infected here seems to be relatively stable, or it's growing at a relatively slow pace. We'll need another week or so to see if we are flattening the curve or not."
Meanwhile, ordinary Ohioans are showing the proverbial old American resilience. Brenda Culler, says her 14-year-old cried for many days about her freshmen softball season being delayed or cancelled.
"But we set up office together and yesterday she said it was fun to learn when you have all the time in the world to dive deeper into assignments your teacher gives that you're interested in. While the social distancing has its challenges, I love having this time with my family so close."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
