THE 56th ANNUAL OTTAWA COUNTY FAIR STILL ON FOR JULY 20-26

The Ottawa County Agricultural Society will meet on Tuesday, June 2 to determine what the 56th annual Ottawa County Fair will look like at the Ottawa County Fairgrounds in Oak Harbor on July 20-26.

“As of now, the 56th annual Ottawa County Fair is on,” said Mike Libben of the Ottawa County Fair Board. “We’ll know a lot more on June 2 as to whether we’ll be able to have harness racing, and how we’ll handle all of the different segments of the county fair.”

All of Ohio’s county fairs received a $50,000 grant from the state of Ohio to help put on their fairs this year. Ottawa County will use the grant for a much-needed upgrade of the heating and cooling system at Damschroeder Hall, which is busily booked year-rouind for public and private events.

One event that will not be included is the annual Livestock Sale at the fair, due to a lack of bids for processing the livestock due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those showing livestock will have to line up processing of their animals.

OAK HARBOR’S GARAGE SALE DAYS CHANGES FORMAT

The Oak Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce will not be organizing the Village Wide Garage Sale Days for 2020, which are usually help the first weekend in June. Residents can still choose to have a sale, but must follow the guidelines set by the Ohio Department of Health. Those guidelines can be found at https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/checklists/english-checklists/garage-sales-and-outdoor-retail-sales-covid-19-checklist

OHIO RECEIVES REMDESIVIR TO BE DISTRIBUTED STATEWIDE

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH), and the Ohio Hospital Association (OHA), have worked together to distribute remdesivir across Ohio that was received from the federal government on Tuesday, May 12.

The Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA), has issued an Emergency Use Authorization for remdesivir to allow it to be administered to patients. It is currently being studied in treatment of COVID-19 in clinical trials and has been found to shorten the duration of disease from 15 to 11 days in patients being treated in-patient hospital settings.

Ohio has received an allotment of 20 cases of remdesivir, which is estimated for about 100 patients. How to distribute the drug was decided by the clinical leaders of the geographic zones that were created to help Ohio with this pandemic response. The decision makers within each zone consisted of clinicians, pharmacists, public health officials, policymakers, ethicists and other health disciplines that helped with the allocation amount to specific hospitals.

The decision was based on the percentage of mechanically ventilated patients; which deems them to have the highest severity level.

“This is not a cure, but early signs indicate that it can help in the treatment of COVID-19,” said ODH Director Amy Acton, M.D., MPH. “Ohio’s allocation is not enough to treat all patients, so we are working with medical experts to ensure distribution is based on clinical best practices.”

SNAP BENEFITS APPROVED FOR 850,000 OHIO STUDENTS

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (OJFS) has received approval from the United States Department of Agriculture for its Pandemic EBT plan. The Pandemic EBT program was included in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020.

The approval will allow OJFS to distribute SNAP benefits to 850,000 students across Ohio who relied on free or reduced-price meal programs when school was in session to have access to a hot, nutritious meal.  The benefits will be mailed directly to students, and families do not need to apply to be eligible.

Families will receive approximately $300 to purchase healthy and nutritious foods to feed their children. These benefits amount to more than $250 million that will go to our grocery stores and other eligible retailers.

DEPARTMENT OF AGING TO CHECK ON OLDER OHIOANS

Ohio Department of Aging Director Ursel McElroy announced a new service that will provide a daily check-in by phone for Ohioans age 60 or older to ensure that older Ohioans stay connected while staying at home.

The Staying Connected program will call older adults who sign up for the service during a predetermined window of time. When participants answer the phone, they will be asked to respond via touch-tone to confirm that they are OK or to access live support.

If no one answers after three attempts, a call is then made to an alternate contact (if provided) or to non-emergency services. Eligible Ohioans can sign up at aging.ohio.gov or by calling 1-800-266-4346. Staying Connected is not an emergency response service, and participants should always use 911 or their emergency response system if they are injured or in need of emergency assistance.