COLUMBUS — A statewide 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew due to COVID-19 will be extended beyond Saturday, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Thursday afternoon.
DeWine said the curfew, which had been scheduled to end Saturday, must continue even though the state has experienced a recent declined in coronavirus numbers.
“Unfortunately, it’s going to have to stay,” DeWine said during a Thursday press briefing. “We have seen where the numbers are. There has been a downtick for a few days. But (virus spread) is still at a very high level.
“We would love to get ride of it. The next step would maybe be to take it to 11 p.m., but we’re not there yet,” he said.
DeWine said he understands the frustrations of bar and restaurant owners who have dealt with the restrictions since Nov. 19. It was originally set to last 21 days and the governor then extended it another 21 days. He didn’t say how long it would be extended beyond Saturday.
“I know this is difficult. I know this has hit (their) ability to operate,” DeWine said, adding that “the nature” of the bar/restaurant business precludes customers from wearing masks while eating and drinking.
The governor said the curfew was a “compromise” to keep bars and restaurants open while other states were closing them.
COVID-19 numbers continued to improve in Knox County this week, according to the color-coded system used by the state to rate coronavirus spread in a community.
Knox County met only two of the Ohio Public Health Advisory System’s seven indicators, according to the state health department website, which has been updated each Thursday afternoon since it was launched in July.
However, the county remained “red,” or level three, due to continued high incidence of new COVID cases under CDC standards. No county can drop down to “orange,” or level two, until it records fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents.
Knox County recorded 281 new cases in the last two weeks, or 450 per 100,000 residents. That’s the lowest two-week total recorded in the last two months.
The county reported 187 cases in two weeks on Nov. 12. That’s when a rise in cases began, topping out at 386 new cases in a two-week period on Jan. 7. Knox County’s numbers have dropped substantially in the two weeks since, however, with just 281 new cases recorded during this time.
The two indicators met in Knox County this week were new cases per capita and COVID-related outpatient visits. The county has seen declines in the increase of new cases, emergency room visits, hospital admissions and regional ICU occupancy levels.
One category, “non-congregate cases,” has not been updated by the ODH recently and currently shows zero cases in Knox County over the last three weeks. The ODH’s website, however, also shows just 15 active COVID-19 cases in Knox County’s seven long-term care facilities.
Ohio had 83 red counties, four orange counties and one purple county (Hamilton) this week.
Knox Public Health reported 43 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, bringing the county’s pandemic total to 3,490. There are currently 20 county residents hospitalized with COVID-19, down from 28 on Wednesday. There have been 59-COVID related deaths in Knox County since the pandemic began.
In terms of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution, 500,176 Ohio residents have received the first dose of the two-dose Pfizer or Modern vaccine as of Thursday, about 4.3 percent of the state’s population.
In Knox County, 2,116 residents have started the vaccine, or about 3.4 percent of the overall county population.
Even after residents complete the vaccination program, they should continue COVID-19 protective measures, according to Richland Public Health.
The currently authorized mRNA vaccines have been found to provide up to 95 percent immunity against COVID-19. “That means that there is still a small chance that you could get infected, so you need to continue to protect yourself while COVID-19 cases are high in your area,” RPH said.
“Wearing a mask can limit your exposure to the virus, which should greatly lower your chances of becoming ill, even if you’ve been vaccinated,” the health department said in an email Thursday.
Local health officials said there is also a chance those vaccinated can still infect others with COVID-19.
“It’s unclear whether or not people who receive the COVID-19 vaccine have the ability to spread the virus to others, even if they don’t become sick themselves. Researchers are now studying whether the vaccines prevent asymptomatic transmission of the virus,” the agency said.
“If you’ve been vaccinated, it may be possible for enough of the virus to be present in your nose or mouth for you to unknowingly spread it to those around you, even if you don’t experience symptoms. Until researchers confirm that this doesn’t happen, wearing a mask helps you protect the people in your community who haven’t received the vaccine yet.”
