Coronavirus: DeWine shortens curfew due to falling hospitalizations

Curfew is from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Thursday

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Wednesday announced that the state’s curfew would be shortened by one hour beginning Thursday night.

The curfew will be changed to 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday through Feb. 11 because Wednesday marked the seventh day in a row Ohio has reported fewer than 3,500 hospitalized coronavirus patients.

DeWine announced Tuesday that if hospitalizations remained below 3,500 for seven consecutive days, the statewide curfew would be reduced by one hour for two weeks.

There were 2,944 people hospitalized with the COVID-19 virus as of Wednesday, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

DeWine announced Tuesday that if hospitalizations remained below 3,500 for seven consecutive days, the statewide curfew would be adjusted from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. for two weeks.

If hospitalizations stay under 3,000 COVID-19 patients, the curfew will be from midnight until 5 a.m. For the curfew to be lifted altogether, hospitalizations have to remain below 2,500 people.

Ohio has had fewer than 3,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized for the last two days, according to ODH.

In southwest Ohio, the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients has remained under 900 for five straight days. As of Wednesday, 826 patients were hospitalized, 210 were in ICUs and 172 on ventilators.

After three consecutive days of reporting fewer than 5,000 daily cases of coronavirus in Ohio, the state added 5,366 on Wednesday, according to the state health department.

The number is still 1,000 cases below Ohio’s 21-day average of 6,451. Over the last two weeks, cases dropped from hovering around 6,000 and 7,000 cases a day to 4,000 and 5,000.

Throughout the pandemic, Ohio has reported 878,284 total cases.

The stated added 254 hospitalizations for a total of 45,530. ICU admissions increased by 21 for a total of 6,621.

Ohio has recorded 10,931 deaths attributed to coronavirus during the pandemic, including 75 reported on Wednesday.

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