Gov. Mike DeWine welcomed a plateau in the number of new coronavirus cases Tuesday while dropping hints — but not a date — on what awaits Ohioans when the state reopens for business once the pandemic subsides.

Ohioans will face a very different way of going about their everyday business, the governor cautioned as the state reported 305 additional virus cases and 50 more COVID-19 deaths Tuesday.

DeWine did not venture a date when the stay-at-home and school-closure orders will be allowed to expire, liberating Ohioans. Both orders continue through May 1 but could be extended.

With the arrival of a coronavirus vaccine estimated at up to a year away, virus precautions will remain in place even as Ohioans return to work and restaurants and retail stores are allowed to reopen, he said.

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Calls from some Republican lawmakers and others for DeWine to reopen “nonessential” businesses in areas hit less by the virus are surfacing, but DeWine said his decisions will be grounded in not reigniting the pandemic.

DeWine said when Ohio begins to get back to normal, “It’s going to be different,” with virus precautions still required at businesses, schools, universities and colleges. People will be asked to continue to wear masks, practice social distancing and take other precautions.

The state must “be careful” in reopening Ohio, the governor said. “I owe the people the truth. It will not be like it was until we have a vaccine.

“Until there is a vaccine, this monster is going to be lurking around us,” DeWine said. “It’s not going away ... when we open things back up, people are going to have to be exceedingly careful.”

He said Ohioans need to be thinking about how to keep employees, customers and students safe.

The governor added, “If we want our economy to pick back up, we have to be as deliberate, careful and thoughtful about getting out of this as we were when we had to make decisions to close things down.

“If we get it wrong, we'll have a medical mess and a mess in the economy. The best thing we can do is get this right,” he said.

DeWine said he regularly talks with governors of adjacent states about virus response and recovery. But, unlike in some states on the East or West coasts, there is “no formal plan or coalition” focused on a regional reopening, he said.

State Health Director Dr. Amy Acton said Tuesday she anticipates a “trickle back to work” when the stay-at-home order is eventually lifted, with precautions taken to screen and test ill employees and warnings to the chronically ill to remain home.

The glimpse at an undated return to partial normalcy came as the state continued its trend of flattening the coronavirus curve.

The state reported 305 new daily cases Tuesday -- and a spike of 50 more confirmed and probable deaths -- from the infectious respiratory disease.

Ohio now has recorded 7,280 total COVID-19 cases and 324 deaths over the past five weeks, when the virus first was confirmed in the state.

Franklin County reported 41 more virus cases Tuesday, escalating its total to the second highest in Ohio at 1,053. The county’s death toll rose by three, to 19.

Central Ohio counties surrounding Franklin reported 23 more cases, bringing their total to 407: Delaware (99); Licking (86); Fairfield (90); Pickaway (97); Madison (24); and Union (11.) Their joint number of deaths remained at nine.

Trends suggest virus infections have hit a plateau, falling into a range of 332 to 371 new cases each day over the past week ending Monday.

The 305 new daily cases reported Tuesday -- a 4.3% increase from Monday’s overall total -- were the second fewest in the past two weeks, with the low of 304 cases being recorded April 5.

With three weeks of the stay-at-home order behind Ohio, officials crediting social distancing with flattening the curve of cases.

“We've won the first battle in the war, but we can't stop here. There are other battles yet to fight,” Acton said. “We’re in that kind of flat spot right now at the top of our first peak ... We’re going to have good days and bad days.”

Hospitalizations steadily tracked down from 143 to 85 over the past five days through Monday, while intensive-care unit admissions of virus patients fell from 29 to 18, according to state figures.

The slowing of the growth rate of virus cases has bought time to prepare Ohio’s hospital system for any spike in the number of virus patients, officials said.

Acton said she is issuing an order to help protect front-line responders such as paramedics and firefighters by confidentially providing their agencies with the addresses of coronavirus patients so they can take needed personal safety precautions if transporting those patients to hospitals.

During his news briefing Tuesday, DeWine invited Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther to appear via a video link to discuss the 1,100-bed overflow “backup” hospital being prepared at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

Both DeWine and Ginther said they hope the convention center never will have to be used during the pandemic. “I think we’re well prepared,” Ginther said.

DeWine announced the state is asking federal regulators for flexibility in its Medicaid program, including expanding the use of telehealth services, waiving patient signature requirements for medical procedures and prescriptions and allowing services to be provided in unlicensed facilities.

The provisions, DeWine said, will ensure Medicaid beneficiaries get the care they need while supporting social distancing. Ohio and Wisconsin had been the only two states not to seek waivers.

The Trump administration has approved the requests – which typically take months to process – within an average of six days.

Medicaid provides health insurance to one in four Ohioans, with its enrollment increasing as jobs disappear because of the impact of coronavirus and business closings on the economy.

Cases are growing, rather than slowing, in Ohio’s 28 packed state prisons holding nearly 49,000 inmates, with 150 inmates and 143 staff members testing positive for coronavirus through Tuesday. Seven prisons have virus-infected prisoners, and 13 have reported ill staff members.

The Pickaway Correctional Institution south of Columbus registered the first inmate death and has 74 ill prisoners, prompting DeWine to send National Guard medics to replace prison medical staff members who are among 38 employees who have been sickened.

Most of the staff cases (75) statewide and the lone employee fatality stem from Marion Correctional Institution, where 48 inmates have tested positive.

Record claims for state unemployment benefits could dramatically rise again when figures for last week are released Thursday. Nearly 700,000 Ohioans — 12% of the workforce — are without jobs amid the pandemic, according to the most-recent figures. Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said work continues to improve the slammed online state filing and phone systems.

After previously refusing to release information, the state had expected Tuesday to begin posting the names of nursing homes — and their numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths — to the health department website. However, Acton had not yet signed the order as of Tuesday afternoon. She expects to do so soon.

The coming order from Acton also requires operators of nursing homes and senior-living centers to notify residents and family members of any virus cases within 24 hours.

Ohio State treating COVID-19 patients with plasma

Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center has transfused the first virus patient in central and northern Ohio with plasma from a recovered COVID-19 patient.

The transfusions are part of a nationwide effort to provide plasma to people who are ill with the life-threatening disease. People who have recovered from COVID-19 often have antibodies that can possibly attack the virus, according to the university.

Ohio State researchers also will study the donated plasma to learn which antibodies perform best.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration began allowing the use of plasma to treat COVID-19 through an emergency investigational new-drug application process with academic institutions.

Health care providers have long used antibodies from the blood of recovered patients as a treatment for infections when vaccines or other medications were not yet available, said Dr. Rama K. Mallampalli, professor and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Ohio State.

Meanwhile, chest X-rays are often used to detect infections in the lungs, but research led by an Ohio State doctor found it’s not a reliable way to diagnose respiratory infections caused by COVID-19.

The research team led by Dr. Michael Weinstock, an adjunct professor of emergency medicine at Ohio State's College of Medicine, reviewed more than 630 chest X-rays of confirmed and symptomatic COVID-19 patients of a large urgent care company in New York and New Jersey.

The radiologists determined the chest X-rays were normal in 58.3% of cases, and normal or only mildly abnormal in 89% of patients, according to Ohio State.

Dispatch Reporters Max Filby and Catherine Candisky contributed to this story.

rludlow@dispatch.com

@RandyLudlow