After five weeks of climbing, Ohio's case ratio per 100,000 residents is declining from the previous week's tally. This is the metric Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) is using to determine if health restrictions can be lifted.
On April 15, Ohio's two-week average of cases per 100,000 people reached 200 cases.
Now that number has dropped to just over 185 cases per 100,000 people.
DeWine has said all health restrictions, such as the mask mandate, would be lifted when Ohio reaches 50 cases per 100,000 people.
Since announcing that goal in early March, Ohio saw its ratio drop once before seeing a spike in cases.
- March 10 - 156 cases per 100,000 people
- March 18 - 143 cases per 100,000 people
- March 25 - 146 cases per 100,000 people
- April 1 - 167 cases per 100,000 people
- April 8 - 183 cases per 100,000 people
- April 15 - 200 cases per 100,000 people
- April 22 - 185 cases per 100,000 people
DeWine says, when it comes to lifting health orders, he's open to looking at other metrics.
"Looking at any kind of measures that would tell people kind of where we're going and what we have to achieve," DeWine said.
Kentucky will lift its health restrictions once more than 55% of the population gets vaccinated. Thirty-eight percent of Ohio's total population has received at least the first shot.
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