An estimated 90 percent of Ohio’s economy will be reopened by the end of the week under Gov. Mike DeWine’s “Responsible Restart Ohio Plan.”
Since May 1, the healthcare industry has been able to perform all medically necessary procedures that do not require an overnight stay, such as routine check-ups, outpatient surgeries, imaging procedures, and diagnostic tests.
On May 4, general office environments as well as businesses in manufacturing, distribution, and construction were allowed to reopen.
The most substantial reopening phase is set to occur Tuesday, when businesses in the consumer, retail, and services industries can reopen so long as they abide by mandatory safety requirements.
“Well it’s really a risk no matter what we do. It’s a risk if we don’t do anything, it’s a risk if we do this,” Gov. DeWine said during a Sunday appearance on Fox News.
“The economy is not going to open no matter what we do, whatever we order, unless people have confidence. We’re trying to give them confidence,” he added.
As of Sunday, Ohio had 22,891 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,220 deaths. Over the last two weeks, Ohio saw its number of new cases steadily decrease but then climb back up on Friday when the state reported 885 new cases in a single day.
“What we do have now is great capacity in regard to testing. We did not have that two weeks ago,” said DeWine, who noted that the state has recruited a “big force” of people to conduct contact tracing.
“We are really at a plateau with hospitalizations. We’re at a plateau with deaths. We’re at a plateau in regard to new cases,” the governor claimed. “So they do go up and down.”
University Hospitals has released a “Healthy Restart Playbook” as a guide for business owners on how to safely reopen. The guide encourages businesses to conduct a health screening of employees before they enter the workplace and ask all employees to wear a face mask while on the job.
“As we look to come back carefully, it’s not so much about at this point orders that I issue or my health director issues. It’s really about what people do and I emphasize that time and time again,” DeWine said Sunday. “We’ve got to be very careful as we do this because if we’re not careful we’re going to roll backwards, we’re going to have to shut things down, and that is not what anyone wants to see.”
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
