There are 36 identified cases of coronavirus in Summit County, including 9 hospitalizations, the county health department said Tuesday. Ages of those who have tested positive in in the county range from 21 to 92.

Summit County Health Commissioner Donna Skoda said those numbers represent only the very beginning of the upward curve in cases that officials say will test our healthcare capacity.

“It’s a horribly uncertain time,” she said Tuesday during the county’s twice-weekly update on COVID-19.

Ohio won’t likely reach the peak of the crisis until some time around May 1, which is more than five weeks away, Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday.

So far, about 25% of the Strategic National Stockpile, the nation’s supply of life-saving drugs and supplies, has been distributed, said Chris Barker, the emergency preparedness and compliance supervisor for Summit County.

And the county has received its first shipment of personal protection equipment (PPE) from a national stockpile, Skoda said, but it's only enough to carry first responders and health care workers through a week or two or maybe a bit more.

She would not provide numbers when asked how large the allotment of equipment was.

“It’s a horribly uncertain time,” Skoda said. "For how long, I wish I knew. Much depends on how many cases we get, how much testing we get.”

There are now 564 confirmed cases in the state, the Ohio Department of Health said Tuesday. Of those cases, 145 people are hospitalized and 8 people have died as a result of COVID-19.

Health care workers represent 16% of the state’s infections, said Dr. Amy Acton, director of the Ohio Department of Health, at Tuesday’ state task force briefing at the Statehouse in Columbus.

She cautioned that the caseload is just “the tip of the iceberg” for what health care workers will be seeing in the weeks to come.

Ohio hospitals are at about 60 percent capacity, with a total of 3,600 intensive care unit beds currently available in the state, Acton said.

Cases have now appeared in 49 of the state’s 88 counties. The state’s tally, which may lag county health department figures, includes 36 cases in Summit, 13 in Stark, 15 in Medina, four in Portage and none in Wayne.

Tuesday’s Statehouse news conference differed from its predecessors in that no new public-health orders were issued by Acton and no executive orders were issued by Gov. Mike DeWine.

While saying he shares Trump’s desire to remove public-health restrictions to check the virus’s spread in order to tend to the souring economy by Easter, DeWine distanced himself from his fellow Republican’s remarks.

“If our hospitals are overwhelmed, thousands of our fellow Ohioans do not get the care they need ... they die because we don’t have facilities to protect them. That’s a personal tragedy for them, a tragedy for all of us,” said DeWine, who has been praised for his actions to check COVID-19.

Asked about Trump tweets about the virus and the economy, DeWine said a “short-term economic slowdown” is preferable to not acting aggressively to save lives.

How long will we be sheltering in place? Skoda said from a public health standpoint, "probably the last thing you want to hear is we’re going to lift any of orders any time soon."

With not enough PPE, not enough testing, no proven widespread treatment and a vaccine more than a year away, the public right now needs to stay home, Skoda reiterated Tuesday.

Also, any time you touch a gasoline pump, an ATM or anything not in your house, wash your hands with soap and water or use hand sanitizer, she said.

That applies, too, to pizza or carry-out food, Skoda said.

Take the food out of its container, put it on your own plates, discard the packaging and wash your hands before you eat, she said.

Beacon Journal reporters Marla Ridenour, Amanda Garrett and Betty Lin-Fisher and Columbus Dispatch reporter Randy Ludlow contributed to this report.

GOV. DEWINE NEWS CONFERENCE - TUESDAY

SUMMIT COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH UPDATE - TUESDAY

RISE OF CASES ACROSS OHIO