After nearly three months, Ohio’s curfew is lifting.
Gov. Mike DeWine announced that as of Thursday (February 11), the curfew would no longer remain in effect. He initially issued a three-week curfew beginning November 19 in hopes of mitigating the spread of COVID-19, but that curfew has repeatedly extended for months. Last month, the start of the curfew pushed back from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., remaining in effect until 5 a.m.
“Thanks to a sustained decrease in #COVID19 hospitalizations, Ohio’s curfew has been lifted,” DeWine announced. “If hospitalizations begin rising again, @OhioDeptofHealth may reinstate it. It's crucial that we all continue safety protocols to #SlowTheSpread and prevent hospitalizations from going up.”
“Hospitalizations continue going down, and we believe a big reason for this is that those in our nursing homes have been vaccinated,” he added. “Over 50% of Ohio COVID deaths have been of our most vulnerable citizens in our nursing homes. That’s why we made the decision to get them vaccinated ASAP. This strategy is working. The number of COVID cases in our nursing homes has dropped dramatically.”
DeWine also confirmed that the state tracked below 2,500 hospitalizations for the past seven days, which marked the end of the statewide curfew.
The Ohio Department of Health reported more than 931,000 total COVID-19 cases as of Thursday. The department also tracked more than 48,000 hospitalizations and more than 12,500 total deaths, state data show.
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