Governor’s Update for March 4, 2021

Gov. DeWine gave a speech at 5:30 tonight, on the one-year anniversary of his first public decision regarding COVID-19, the cancellation of the Arnold Classic event in Columbus. His main message was that we have come so far in getting the pandemic under control and we should not stop doing what works, namely wearing masks.

But he knows that people are weary and want to know when the state health orders that limit things such as attendance at sporting events will end.

For the first time, he laid out the metric he will use: When Ohio gets down to 50 or fewer new cases per 100,000 people for two weeks, all health orders will end. He noted that cases per 100,000 people for a two-week period is a standard measure we have used since early in the pandemic.

He said we are clearly moving in the right direction. New cases per 100,000 were 731 on Dec. 3. They were 445 on Feb. 3. Yesterday, 179. He said vaccinations are the key to moving us forward. About 1.8 million people have been vaccinated in Ohio to date.