Governor DeWine’s office sent out an email update on Thursday about COVID, the upcoming presidential debate and sporting events.
In COVID news, 67 counties remained in their current state of exposure while Portage County dropped from level 3 to level 2.
The governor’s office also announced that Ohio’s Responsible Restart Guidelines will be recommending that all residential colleges and universities regularly test a sample population of asymptomatic students.
“Some schools are already doing this, and screening asymptomatic students really gives school leaders a good idea about virus spread on their campuses. Our expectation is that colleges and universities will screen at least 3 percent of their at-risk population on a regular basis,” DeWine said in the press release.
Ohio will now be allowing indoor visitation at nursing homes, intermediate care facilities, and assisted living homes. Intermediate care facilities will be opening as of September 28 for visitation while nursing homes and assisted living facilities will be opened on October 12, to allow facilities adequate time to update their staffing requirements, visitation policies and inform their residents of expectations and guidelines.
In sports news, the one-game-per-calendar-day limit on sports competitions has been lifted. The release states that “This change comes over a month after the most recent guidelines were published with evidence showing that events have gone on without any noticeable increase in spread.”
Updated order removing one-game-per-calendar-day limit on sports competitions: https://t.co/fX4S65O8CQ
🏈⚾⚽#InThisTogetherOhio pic.twitter.com/wbKHwFNxAD
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) September 25, 2020
The upcoming presidential debate set to take place at Case Western Reserve Universities nursing campus on September 29 will be guarded in part by the Ohio National Guard. After Cleveland officials requested support, DeWine activated around 300 Guardsmen to “assist police in areas such as traffic control, site security, and critical infrastructure protection” as part of the National Guard Response Force.
The Ohio National Guard has been called up to support similar events in the past, including the 2016 Republican National Convention.
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Ben Kolodny is a reporter for The Ohio Star and the Star News Network. Follow Ben on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Ohio National Guard” by The National Guard. CC BY 2.0.
