Ohio Gov Announces Three-Week 10 p.m. Curfew After COVID Case Number Triples

Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced Tuesday that the state would soon enter a 21-day quarantine period in response to a COVID-19 surge that has seen the number of new cases triple over three weeks.

Beginning Thursday, Ohio residents will be subject to curfew between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., with retail businesses remaining closed during the same hours. Exceptions will be made for late-night pharmacies, grocery stores and carry-out or delivery services for restaurants, while those who work past 10 p.m. will also be allowed to continue doing so.

"We're not shutting down, we're slowing down," DeWine said in a statement. "The curfew is aimed at helping to reduce the number of person-to-person contacts because the only way virus lives is when it goes from one person to another. We have to flatten this curve again and get this under control."

"What we are asking every Ohioan to do is to limit your activity, limit your contacts with other Ohioans," DeWine added. "At 10 p.m. retail establishments need to be closed and people should be home... That will end at 5 a.m. We believe that this is going to help, it's going to reduce some of the contacts that are taking place."

The move comes after DeWine's order enforcing that masks be worn at retail businesses went into effect on Monday, while another order limiting gatherings to no more than 10 people went into effect on Tuesday.

DeWine cited rising daily COVID-19 case numbers when announcing the curfew. Over 7,000 cases have been added each day for the past several days, while cases averaged a little over 2,000 per day three weeks earlier. He said that the spread of the virus was "just shocking," noting that "1 out of 100 people in the last two weeks was diagnosed with COVID" in five Ohio counties.

DeWine also warned that the number of residents hospitalized with the virus had risen "dramatically," going from around 1,000 in mid-October to 3,648 on Tuesday. The governor emphasized that the curfew did not mean that the state was shutting down, while urging residents to wear masks and take steps to limit their contacts whenever possible.

"We could summarize what we need to do as wear a mask and have fewer contacts," said DeWine. "We know that if we reduce the number of people we come into contact every day with, that we reduce the chances of getting the virus and we reduce the chances of spreading the virus if unknowingly have it."

"What each one of us does will make a difference," he added. "We don't have to cut these contacts down as much as we did in the spring, but if we can cut it down say 20 percent, 25 percent, we're going to have a significant impact."

There have been more than 305,000 COVID-19 cases in Ohio since the pandemic began, resulting in over 5,700 deaths, according to the COVID Tracking Project.