CINCINNATI — Two weeks ago, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced that he would drop all coronavirus (COVID-19) related health orders once the state dropped to 50 new cases per 100,000 residents for a two-week period.
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And while Ohio has yet to reach that threshold, it continues to trend in the right direction.
During a press briefing held at Xavier University to address the state's response to the coronavirus pandemic, DeWine announced that Ohio has averaged 143.8 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents for the past two weeks. While that figure may be nearly three times larger than the one Ohio is trying to reach, DeWine noted that it shows significant improvement for the Buckeye State, which was averaging 700 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents not too long ago.
"Again, we're making progress," DeWine said. "The battle has to be fought every single day and we need to keep wearing our masks and we need to keep getting vaccinated and try to drive this virus down and see these cases go down. So it continues to drop and that's the good news."
Earlier this week, DeWine announced that Ohio will continue to open up eligibility for the coronavirus vaccine. Beginning on Friday, March 19, all residents in the state over the age of 40 will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, with all residents 16-years-old and older eligible to receive the vaccine beginning on March 29.
Asked for a timeline regarding when Ohio would reach its goal, DeWine said he couldn't provide a clear one at this point.
You can watch Gov. DeWine's full press briefing in the video player below.