Gov. Mike DeWine announced the end of the statewide curfew Thursday due to a decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations. Credit: David Petkiewicz via TNS
There is no more statewide curfew.
Gov. Mike DeWine announced at a press conference Thursday that he would not renew the curfew — which expired noon Thursday — due to steady COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state. But he said he would consider reinstating the curfew should COVID-19 levels rise again.
“We may in the future — we don’t know — have to put a curfew back on, and we certainly hope we do not,” DeWine said. “But it’s very important for us to continue to do what we’ve been doing.”
DeWine said he attributed the decrease in hospitalizations to vaccine distributions, particularly in nursing homes.
DeWine previously said he would lift the curfew if the state maintained less than 2,500 COVID-19 hospitalizations for at least one week. According to the Ohio Hospital Association COVID-19 hospitalization dashboard, Ohio has maintained less than 2,500 hospitalizations since Feb. 2.
At the time of publication, there are 1,862 COVID-19 patients in Ohio hospitals, including 479 in intensive care units, according to the hospitalization dashboard.
The curfew, announced Nov. 17, 2020, was originally set at 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and intended to last three weeks. It did not apply to travel for work, food or medical attention. The curfew was shortened to 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Jan. 28 after seven consecutive days of less than 3,500 COVID-19 hospitalizations.
When the curfew was announced, there were 3,649 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, according to the hospitalization dashboard. Hospitalizations peaked at 5,308 Dec. 15, 2020.
The end of the curfew also comes after the Ohio Department of Health announced Wednesday it would add about 4,000 deaths this week to the COVID-19 death total due to underreporting. The deaths date back to October, the release states, with the majority being from November and December.
The missed deaths were due to a lack of reconciliation of hospital counts into the state’s system, DeWine said.
