CEDARVILLE, Ohio — Thursday marked another record day of COVID cases in Ohio.
In his biweekly news conference, Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) says the situation continues to worsen to a point where nearly three-fourths of Ohioans are living in an area where the extent of the spread is considered dangerous.
What You Need To Know
- Ohio set its fourth record in a week Thursday of the number of new cases reported: 2,425
- Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) says Clark, Hamilton and Cuyahoga Counties are on the verge of turning purple or having serious exposure and about three-quarters of Ohioans live in a red or high incidence county
- President Trump has said one reason Americans are seeing a rise in cases is because of a rise in testing, something the governor refuted
DeWine using part of his time Thursday to call out residents who have not taken the virus seriously enough, saying it is time to pay attention.
“Message to them today is It is now serious,” says DeWine.
Ohio set its fourth record in a week of the number of new cases reported, 2,425 Thursday. To paint how serious the picture is, DeWine brought in former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
“I thought I was safe and I was wrong,” says Christie.
Christie wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal Wednesday saying he should have worn a mask at the White House. He was in the ICU for about a week.
“There’s no place to hide from this virus if you’re not going to take these common sense steps that the CDC and the NIH have recommended to us,” Christie says.
DeWine says Clark, Hamilton and Cuyahoga Counties are on the verge of turning purple, or having serious exposure and about three-quarters of Ohioans live in a red or high incidence county.
“What is most scary about this is it does not seem like we’re not even starting to get to a plateau,” DeWine explains.
President Donald Trump has said one reason Americans are seeing a rise in cases is because of a rise in testing, something the governor refuted.
“The whole idea that our cases are going up solely because increase in testing is just nuts,” DeWine laughed.
DeWine says the increase in positivity to six percent is enough to put that theory to bed. Even though he issued a mask mandate a while back, DeWine says the government cannot actually enforce something like that “unless we’re in China or some totalitarian state.”
He says government is not going to knock on your door and say, ‘Hey, where’s your mask?’
