Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine took extra steps Thursday to prevent the Chinese coronavirus from spreading in the Buckeye state.
The governor announced school for K-12th graders will be canceled from March 17 till April 3, according to the governor’s press release. These closures apply to public, community, and private K-12 schools, but does not apply to daycare centers and home-based childcare providers.
During this closure, DeWine said schools should find alternative methods for educating kids throughout this hiatus. Furthermore, the governor is letting school administrators decide if they use their school buildings.
“We want to thank educators and administrators for the extraordinary efforts they will take to continue offering services during this time of national crisis,” he said.
DeWine did not just stop at closing schools, he took an extra step and banned mass gatherings too.
The Buckeye state is defining mass gatherings as anything over 100 or more people “in a single room or single space at the same time such as an auditorium, stadium, arena, large conference room, meeting hall, theater, or any other confined indoor or outdoor space,” according to the governor’s press release.
The mass gathering ban does not apply to airports, bus and train stations, medical facilities, libraries, shopping malls and centers, the press release states.
Currently, Ohio has five coronavirus cases and 52 people are under investigation, but the state is acting like 100,000 people have the virus.
“Just the fact of community spread says that at least one percent at the very least of our population is carrying this virus in Ohio today,” Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton said at a press conference Thursday. “We have over 11.7 million people, so the math is over 100,000.
Acton said the measures DeWine is taking are decisive.
Ohio expects the cases of COVID-19 will double every six days, according to News5Cleveland.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Star News Digital Media. If you have any tips, email Zachery at [email protected].
Photo “Mike Dewine” by Mike DeWine.
