COLUMBUS, Ohio – When Ohio reaches 50 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 people over two weeks, all health orders will be canceled, Governor Mike DeWine announced Thursday night in a public address.
“Achieving that goal is very achievable,” said DeWine. “We can and will do that, and I know we will.”
DeWine updated the public at a special address because it is the one-year mark of the pandemic entering the state. On Tuesday, it will be a year since DeWine created a state of emergency due to the outbreak, which spawned dozens of public health orders.
DeWine said he can provide the reference, thanks to Ohioans’ collective vaccines and sacrifices – such as wearing masks – that he is reducing the number of new cases and hospitalizations.
The 14-minute speech was shorter than the previous night’s public speeches that DeWine, a Republican, delivered during the pandemic. As with many governors, who recently made promises about when vaccines will be available to all residents, for example, DeWine is also offering a benchmark as the pandemic appears to be ending.
DeWine’s announcement could also prevent a confrontation with the Ohio General Assembly, which wants to limit its ability to declare public emergencies and other executive orders.
Just two weeks ago, for example, the Ohio Senate passed a bill that would allow lawmakers to rescind states of emergency as well as invalidate emergency rules. DeWine promised to veto the bill, but Senate Bill 22, which is now in the Ohio House, passed with a veto-proof majority.
The state average of cases per 100,000 residents in the past two weeks is on the Ohio coronavirus panel.
On Wednesday, the average was 179.6 cases per 100,000 residents in the past two weeks.
This, according to DeWine, is compared to:
-A month ago, on February 3, when Ohio cases were 445 per 100,000 residents in the last 14 days.
-Ten. 3, when Ohio had 731 cases per 100,000 people in the previous two weeks.
The rate mentioned by DeWine is not directly linked to the number of new cases reported each day by the Ohio Department of Health. Instead, it involves a two-week retrospective of the number of known cases in which symptoms started over the period of time and excludes incarcerated individuals.
Unlike Texas and Mississippi, whose governors have decided to end the masks’ mandates, Ohio residents will remain covered up for now.
Part of the recent downward trend in cases per 100,000 can be credited to Ohio citizens wearing masks in public, said DeWine.
Even so, people continue to die from COVID-19 every day. There are new variants of the coronavirus that can be more contagious, he said.
DeWine defended the effectiveness of the masks.
“Study after study showed that the masks work,” said DeWine. “In fact, we did our own study in schools and learned that even when the kids were no more than three feet away – even closer than six feet – and they were in a classroom for a long time, as long as they wore a mask, the virus simply did not spread. “
Rich Exner contributed to this report.
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