CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Mike DeWine

Interview

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BLITZER: We're getting some breaking news coming into the Situation Room right now. The state of Florida just reported more COVID-19 cases over the past week alone than during any other seven-day period during this entire year and a half pandemic.

Data just published. It shows 134,000, 134,506 new COVID-19 cases in Florida over the past week. That's an average of nearly 20,000 a day, 19,250 new cases each day in Florida.

Clearly a hotspot.

States across the United States are also seeing an alarming rise in COVID cases fueled by this highly aggressive Delta variant. It's getting worse right now.

Let's discuss what's going on with the Republican Governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine.

Governor DeWine, as usual, thanks so much for joining us.

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: What's your reaction when you see these numbers? You hear the numbers? You see how bad it's getting in Florida and elsewhere. And we're talking about in Ohio in a moment but give us your reaction.

DEWINE: Well, we look at Ohio but of course we've always looked at other states to see what's going on as well. In Ohio, I just looked at our numbers we've -- if you look at people hospitalized, we've doubled the number of people in our hospital in the last two weeks. So we're up over 800 people now.

[17:30:00]

Two weeks ago, we were, I think 390, something like that. So it's been doubling in two weeks. We're seeing our cases go up. And, you know, I talked to the people of the state today through a press conference. And really, my message was pretty simple. And that is these vaccinations work amazingly well.

I gave a figure, Wolf, which I'll share with your listeners and your viewers. Since January, we've had 18, roughly 18,000 people in the hospital in Ohio from COVID. All but 300 of those individuals had not been vaccinated. So it just, you know, we're at 98.5 percent of the people who've been to the hospital and to be admitted. They were that sick since January 1 had been unvaccinated. So this vaccine is very, very powerful. It works exceedingly well.

And my message to the people while today was this is where the game is today. It's all about vaccinations. And there is some good news. You know, as we've seen our cases go up. And I think people are becoming more concerned, in the counties that were the most unvaccinated, if you look at a bottom fourth of our counties that were the lowest vaccinated counties, those counties we've seen the most increase in vaccinations in the last two weeks. So we're happy about that.

BLITZER: Yes, so, so critical. We did some checking, Governor, just shy of 47 percent of your state is now fully vaccinated. And while you have strongly encouraged your residents to get this shot, you also say, and I'm quoting you now that this is an individual choice, but what if not enough people in Ohio choose to get the shot, it leaves young children, 11 and under, older Americans and the immunocompromised residents, it leaves them very vulnerable. So what happens then, if they decide, you know what, they're not going to get this shot. They're endangering a lot of folks right now.

DEWINE: Well, let me go back to the numbers just for a moment if I could, we're at 61 percent of adults who are now vaccinated. We are at 58 percent of those 12 and above, which is probably a better number to look at simply because teenagers can in fact, spread it. Look, our Health Department has put out recommendations to states or excuse me, to our school districts around the state. We have 600 and some school districts and we've said look, if anyone is vaccinated, they should be safe.

But if they're not vaccinated, it's our strong recommendation that that school district make a decision for everyone to be masked. If schools don't do that, again, I was talking to the people the state today and trying to give them all the facts about what's going on with this Delta variant, which is so, you know, highly, highly contagious. And Dr. Vanderhoff, who is our medical director, talked directly about these children who cannot be vaccinated yet.

And although usually they don't get very sick, some do. Some do end up in the hospital. And so we are concerned about them. And look, I said that, I was asked directly the question about these kids. And I said, look, if it was my child, and they could not be vaccinated or we're not vaccinated, and they were going to be in a school setting, you know, I certainly would want them to wear a mask.

BLITZER: And you would want everyone around them to be fully vaccinated that would potentially be so, so critically important. Governor DeWine thanks as usual for joining us. Good luck in Ohio.

DEWINE: Thanks Wolf. Appreciate it.

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