Dr. Amy Acton, left, director of the Ohio Department of Health, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine pose with their homemade masks following a news conference on the state of Ohio's response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on Monday. Associated Press

With more than 1 in 5 confirmed COVID-19 Ohio deaths in the Mahoning Valley, the state is focusing medical resources on the area.

The Youngstown-owned Covelli Centre is one of six locations in the state designated as a hospital overflow space, Gov. Mike DeWine said Monday.

“After visiting locations and assessing for things such as distance to an existing hospital, conditions safe for patients and health care professionals, and space to meet the region’s expected needs,” the six sites were selected, DeWine said.

In addition to Covelli, the other locations are in Lucas, Cuyahoga, Montgomery, Hamilton and Franklin counties.

“Our goal is to double the capacity of our hospitals,” DeWine said.

The downtown Youngstown center will immediately start being converted to overflow hospital space, and it will take about two weeks to be ready, Dr. John Luellen, CEO of Mercy Health-Youngstown, said.

When it is converted, the center will have the ability to care for about 250 patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 who require moderate acute care and for those recovering from the virus and in need of additional medical care.

This will allow intensive-care-unit beds at Mercy Health’s Valley facilities — St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital and St. Joseph Warren Hospital — to serve patients requiring more acute care.

“This site will be invaluable in helping to balance our patient load between our traditional hospital walls and this new temporary care site,” said Dr. James Kravec, chief clinical officer at Mercy Health-Youngstown and Mahoning County Public Health’s medical director.

Kravec added: “We are sharing our patient transfer operations among our local hospitals to further streamline and maximize our ability to get patients the exact level of care they need, when they need it.”

People will be restricted from visiting the site, but families of admitted patients will have virtual-visit capabilities.

ELKTON PRISON HELP

With a COVID-19 outbreak at the Elkton federal prison, DeWine said 26 members of the Ohio National Guard — who all work in the medical field — are being sent to the Columbiana County facility to assist with medical staffing.

DeWine also urged the U.S. Department of Justice and the federal Bureau of Prisons to stop bringing in new prisoners to Elkton. U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said late Tuesday that the bureau has agreed to stop sending inmates to Elkton.

At the Elkton prison, seven inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, “dozens more have shown to have symptoms, some very serious.” and three have died there, he said.

“There is no doubt this prison needs help,” DeWine said.

The National Guard members will be at Elkton for seven to 10 days with a mission to assist the facility’s medical staff –which is at 50 percent of what it should be — with inmates with non-COVID-19 cases and to help those with virus symptoms, DeWine said.

“They will treat those they can while triaging others with serious symptoms for hospital care,” he said.

DeWine said the National Guard could help transport seriously ill inmates to the hospital if there is a surge.

The state has received calls from Elkton inmate family members about the outbreak there, he said.

“We’re all in this together and providing state help for this federal prison is the right thing to do,” DeWine said.

COVID-19 CASES

There were at least 142 COVID-19 confirmed deaths in the state as of Monday, including 30 in the Mahoning Valley, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

That means 21.1 percent of confirmed deaths in the state are in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.

That’s also up from 119 confirmed deaths statewide, including 27 in the Valley Sunday.

The new Valley deaths are two in Mahoning — both women in their 70s on Sunday — and one in Trumbull — a woman in her 80s on Friday.

As of Monday, there were 17 deaths in Mahoning and eight in Trumbull while there remains five in Columbiana County.

There were 4,450 confirmed cases of the virus in Ohio on Monday, up from 4,043 Sunday, according to the state department of health.

There were 272 cases in Mahoning County, up from 261 Sunday. Mahoning has the most COVID-19 deaths of any county in the state despite being the 12th-most populous, and the highest per capita number of cases and deaths from the virus.

Mahoning also has the second-most hospitalizations of any county in Ohio with 117 and is fifth in total cases.

There were 102 cases in Trumbull County, up from 92 Sunday.

Trumbull is the 15th-most populous county in the state, but is eighth in COVID-19 deaths, seventh in hospitalizations with 49, and 10th in total cases.

In Columbiana County, there were 53 cases Monday, up from 42 Sunday.

Last Monday, the county had 15 cases and two deaths.

With five confirmed COVID-19 deaths, Columbiana was tied for 11th in the number of total deaths and had the 19th-most cases in Ohio. It’s the 26th-most populous county in the state.

The 199 COVID-19 hospitalizations in the three counties make up 16.4 percent of all hospitalizations in the state from the virus.

Statewide, 1,214 people were hospitalized as of Monday because of the virus, up from 1,104 a day earlier.

There were 371 people in intensive care units Monday compared to 346 Sunday.

Statewide deaths have gone from 39 to 142 in a week, and total cases have gone from 1,933 to 4,450 during the same time.

Dr. Amy Acton, Ohio Department of Health director, said she expected the peak to be late this month to May 5, and that “we will have a couple (of) hard weeks ahead.”

“But what we’re doing today is contributing to controlling the surge,” she said. “Don’t give up. Our ability to control this storm is in our hands. A huge part of it is what we are doing collectively.”

Acton added that “people are moving mountains. You are saving lives. I get emotional when I talk about this. This is no small thing we are doing together. It’s hard to shut down our lives the way we have. I know we will look back and know that we all saved each other in this state.”

dskolnick@tribtoday.com