( Cincinnati ) - "This is about saving people's lives," said Chief Eliot Isaac in an update on Monday afternoon about the latest on the response to coronavirus in the City of Cincinnati.
The police chief was talking about enforcement of Ohio's order for people to stay at home, and the arrest over the weekend of a man now accused of inciting violence. Chief Isaac says it's policy for officers to warn people gathering unlawfully first, and tell them to disperse. He also says officers spent a portion of the weekend playing "whac-a-mole" in chasing groups around the city that kept dispersing and then reforming. Chief Isaac says the department is working on new strategies.
In a somber update, Cincinnati Health Commissioner, Dr Melba Moore, announced that an 86-year-old man and a 71-year-old man, both with underlying health conditions, are the first to die with coronavirus in the city. A statement from the health department says it is unknown how either patient acquired COVID-19. Mayor Cranley calls their deaths "devastating." He says in that statement "it is also an urgent notice to take this virus, the Stay at Home order, and all healthy behavioral measures seriously.