By 1812Blockhouse
Governor DeWine has announced that the statewide curfew imposed because of the COVID-19 pandemic has been relaxed, with future adjustments — up or down — possible pursuant to a new formula.
In effect since November 19, the current 10:00 PM curfew requires that citizens stay at their place of residence between that time and 5:00 AM, with specific exceptions.
Now that hospitalizations are decreasing across Ohio, the Governor shared a new formula for current and future adjustments of that curfew. On Thursday, the state reported 2,829 hospitalizations, which is the third consecutive day below 3,000.
In brief, as Thursday is a seventh straight day below 3,500 hospitalizations, Ohio’s curfew is now 11 PM., starting on Thursday night.
DeWine said the 11:00 PM curfew will be in place for two weeks. By February 11, if the state has under 3,000 hospitalizations for at least seven days, Ohio will move the curfew back to midnight. If there are less than 2,500 hospitalizations for seven straight days, the curfew will be eliminated.
DeWine again emphasized that if hospitalizations begin to increase the state will reimplement the 10 PM curfew.
In total, there are 883,716 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 reported in Ohio and 11,006 confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths. A total of 45,786 people have been hospitalized throughout the pandemic, including 6,644 admissions to intensive care units.
Locally, numbers released on Thursday show Richland County experiencing decreases in the last seven days in the following areas: Rate of new cases, Emergency Department visits, hospital admissions, percentage of non-congregate cases, and new cases per capita. The County’s numbers remain relatively stable in two areas — outpatient visits and ICU bed occupancy.
This good news is balanced by a rise in reported numbers of COVID-19 cases in Richland County schools, which we cover in a separate story today.
Image by Ashim Shres from Pixabay
