The Dispatch and other Ohio media organizations have been asking for the numbers of deaths in nursing homes attributed to the coronavirus for more than a week. The state health department and many county health departments have refused on several occasions to provide the number without providing a legal justification for withholding them.

More than 100 nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in Ohio report that 826 residents are affected by the novel coronavirus. That includes reports from eight central Ohio facilities, and the total makes up about 10% of all cases in the state.

But the Ohio Department of Health continued to refuse again Thursday to release the numbers of deaths attributed to the virus in each facility, or even a statewide total of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes.

Ohio Health Director Dr. Amy Acton released the number of COVID-19 cases in long-term-care facilities Thursday. She did not say how many employees of those facilities have tested positive for the virus, as had been requested by reporters.

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The Dispatch and other media organizations have been asking for the numbers — never names of patients — for more than a week. The state Health Department and many county health departments have refused on several occasions to provide the number of deaths in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, without providing a legal justification for withholding the numbers.

When asked Thursday why the state is not releasing the number of deaths in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, as well as the number of workers in hospitals who have tested positive, Gov. Mike DeWine said he wasn’t aware that they were withholding the information but that he wanted to consider the input of hospitals as well as the families of deceased nursing home residents.

But under section 3701.17 (c) of the Ohio Revised Code regarding protected health information, the law states, "Information that is in a summary, statistical, or aggregate form and that does not identify an individual is a public record under section 149.43 of the Revised Code and, upon request, shall be released by the director."

"I’ll take a look at that and get back to you," DeWine said during his daily briefing Thursday.

If state is using statute 3701.17 (b), which protects health information that could be used to identity an individual with other information, David Marburger, an attorney who specializes in the First Amendment and public records law, said that citing that statue to shield the number of deaths in nursing homes is "invalid in every way.

"It’s an insult to the intelligence of Ohioans," he said.

Gannett Ohio reporters throughout the state by Thursday evening had tallied at least 88 deaths reported by local county health officials or nursing homes themselves, which would be about a quarter of all deaths in Ohio, but the number is incomplete and likely greater.

Names of long-term-care facilities with coronavirus cases and the number of cases at each facility were listed for the first time late Wednesday by the state Health Department.

The database, which department spokeswoman Melanie Amato said includes residents and employees at the facilities, reflected 838 positive tests for COVID-19.

During the daily briefing with DeWine, Acton on Thursday provided only the number of residents, not employees, in long-term-care facilities who have tested positive for the virus. Wednesday she said there were 700 residents with COVID-19, and by Thursday, the number had increased to 826 residents — about 10% of the total 8,239 cases in Ohio. It’s unclear whether the additional 12 people in the state’s database represent employees, residents or both.

Federal health officials also are coming under increasing pressure to publicly track coronavirus infections and deaths in nursing homes.

Experts say the lack of tracking and transparency has been a major blind spot, and that publicizing outbreaks as they happen could not only alert nearby communities and anguished relatives but also help officials see where to focus testing and other safety measures.

"This is basic public health — you track this, you study it, and you learn from it," said David Grabowski, who specializes in health care policy at Harvard Medical School. He said it’s difficult to have confidence in officials’ ability to contain the virus if they aren’t tracking where it has struck and why.

Such an action by the agencies that oversee the nation’s 15,000 nursing homes is seen as long overdue, coming more than a month after a nursing home in Washington state became the first COVID-19 hot spot in the U.S. with an outbreak that ultimately killed 43 people. There has also been a near-daily drumbeat of new cases that, in some instances, has forced entire homes to be evacuated.

The Associated Press has been keeping its own running tally of nursing home outbreak deaths based on media reports and state health departments. The AP’s latest count as of Wednesday was of at least 4,817 deaths, up from about 450 just two weeks ago.

Some of the Ohio numbers appear to be inaccurate.

The facilities in Franklin County with cases are Convalarium of Dublin (1 case), First Community Village (3), Heartland of Westerville (2), McNaughten Pointe (2), Mill Run Rehabilitation Center (10), The Grand of Dublin (3) and Villas of St. Therese (4).

The Inn at Olentangy Trail is the lone facility in Delaware County reporting a case.

The state’s website showed three cases at First Community Village in Upper Arlington, but the number had grown to 13 — 10 residents and three staff members — by Thursday, according to executives with National Church Residences, which owns the facility.

The change resulted from the facility testing all staff members and all 27 residents of its Roxbury memory care unit, where the first three resident cases were detected.

Obtaining and processing that many tests so quickly wasn’t easy, said Michelle Norris, National Church Residences’ executive vice president for external affairs and growth strategies.

"It took a lot of hard work and advocacy by our chief medical officer," she said. "Testing and (personal protective equipment) are not yet easily obtainable in long-term-care facilities."

The Roxbury unit also has recorded one death, a hospice patient whose positive test result was received after the death, said Denise Anderson, National Church Residences’ vice president for senior living operations.

She said the state Health Department is asking long-term-care facilities to report positive COVID-19 tests for residents and staff members but isn’t asking for the number of deaths that result.

McNaughten Pointe in Columbus disputed a report in the state’s database indicating the facility had two cases. Clara Wukelich, a spokeswoman for the nursing home, said it has one positive case, which it announced April 9.

Another facility that has been transparent is Heartland of Westerville, which has reported positive tests for two staff members. One has fully recovered and returned to work, said Julie Beckert, a spokeswoman for HCR ManorCare, the facility’s owner.

"We’ve been alerting the family contacts for our residents since Day One," she said.

Information from The Associated Press was included in this story.

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