CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The day Ohioans gathered outside Gov. Mike DeWine’s daily press briefings to protest the state’s restrictive coronavirus measures, the Washington Post quoted medical experts saying Ohio might have gotten ahead of the problem.

The report says though it might be too early to say Ohio escaped the glut of cases in nearby states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Illinois, the state has laid out “textbook” measures of how to deal with a pandemic.

"Here in Ohio, we may well be in a position of not a high, high curve of patients but more of a swell.” Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic, chief executive of the Cleveland Clinic, told Post reporter Lenny Bernstein.

For comparison, Michigan cases broke 20,000 this week, nearly quadruple Ohio’s cases -- with many theories outside of state leadership on why.

The Post, which cites hospital leaders in Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland, says that hospitalized cases are far below what officials prepared for. For the Clinic, the Post reports that the system held 150 COVID-19 patients this week, along with 2,000 other patients.

It’s the latest in a stream of good press for DeWine and Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton, but some Ohioans don’t view the measures as a success.

There were about 70 protestors outside the governor’s briefing on Thursday, concerned about how the closures of businesses and other organizations were affecting the state’s economy and driving up unemployment, cleveland.com’s Laura Hancock reports.

Coronavirus cases in Ohio reached 5,512 on Thursday, with 213 deaths. Most recent projections show the peak could be near 1,600 cases per day in April, instead of the original 10,000 predicted.

"Every single modeler, everyone who talks about it, is saying that we must keep doing what we’re doing,” Acton said in a press briefing on Thursday. “You’re succeeding. But the second you ease back, we’ll see ourselves in an outbreak that will really overwhelm our healthcare system.”

Read the full report from the Washington Post here. DeWine will be doing a live stream with the Post on Monday at 3:45 p.m.

This article mistakenly stated M