Wednesday marked Ohio’s seventh consecutive day of fewer than 3,500 concurrent COVID-19 hospitalizations — meaning Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will relax the state’s nightly 10 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew within the next 24 hours.
Speaking Tuesday, DeWine said the curfew's start time would be pushed back to 11 p.m. if the state remained under 3,500 simultaneous hospitalizations for a week straight.
Even lower numbers will allow further adjustments to the curfew, DeWine said. At seven days of fewer than 3,000 hospitalizations, it will move to midnight; at seven days of fewer than 2,500, the curfew will end completely.
Conversely, increasing hospitalization numbers could push it back up to 10 p.m. if the DeWine administration deems it necessary.
DeWine administration spokesman Dan Tierney confirmed the planned change Wednesday night, writing: "I can confirm today’s hospitalization numbers triggered the policy the Governor announced yesterday. We will be issuing an order tonight or tomorrow morning that will move the curfew start time to 11:00 p.m. EST starting tomorrow (Thursday) night."
DeWine enacted the curfew for the first time in mid-November, when Ohio’s daily numbers of new COVID-19 diagnoses and deaths were at an all-time high.
He’s renewed it twice since then, and although new diagnoses have decreased significantly in the meantime, the Ohio Department of Health still reports more than 60 new deaths on most days.
