Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said on social media on Tuesday that he would lift the curfew in the state if hospitalizations dropped below a certain threshold.
“If Ohio has 7 straight days of hospitalizations below 3,500, we will go to an 11 p.m. curfew for at least 2 weeks. So far, we have had 6 straight days below this number,” DeWine said in a series of tweets. “If hospitalizations drop below 3,000 for 7 consecutive days, we plan to move to a midnight curfew for at least 2 weeks. If hospitalizations drop below 2,500 for 7 consecutive days, we feel believe that we will be able to drop the curfew.”
The governor announced last week that he would be extending a statewide curfew originally slated to end on January 23. This is the third time DeWine has extended the curfew, which was put in place in November.
Update on Ohio's Curfew:
➡If Ohio has 7 straight days of hospitalizations below 3,500, we will go to an 11 p.m. curfew for at least 2 weeks. So far, we have had 6 straight days below this number.
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) January 26, 2021
Keep in mind that hospitalizations are a lagging indicator – this means that if these numbers go back up, we would likely need to act quickly to reinstitute the appropriate safety measures.
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) January 26, 2021
“And I know people are anxious – I understand that people who own bars, people who own restaurants, people who want to go there – I get it. I fully understand what they are thinking. They’ve expressed it to me and I get it,” DeWine said last week. “But we’re not there yet, and as governor, I have to try to keep this virus down while at the same time we’re getting the vaccines out just as quickly as we can. So the way out of this, in the end, will be the vaccine. The faster we can get the vaccine in – and that’s our goal.”
Ohio currently has more than 3,000 people hospitalized as a result of the coronavirus, according to data from The Covid Tracking Project. That is a drop of more than 4,000 at the beginning of January and more than 5,000 at the beginning of December.
Fewer than 1,000 of those hospitalized are in the Intensive Care Unit and around 500 are on a ventilator, according to The Covid Tracking Project.
“Keep in mind that hospitalizations are a lagging indicator – this means that if these numbers go back up, we would likely need to act quickly to reinstitute the appropriate safety measures,” DeWine said.
Ohio has more than 760,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
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Jordyn Pair is a reporter with The Ohio Star. Follow her on Twitter at @JordynPair.
as we all know, COVID sleeps till 10:59pm