Gov. Mike DeWine’s usual Thursday COVID press conference is now a statewide address at 5:30pm. COVID hospitalizations are trending down, but Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports while it’s unknown what DeWine might say, it seems unlike that he’ll announce Ohio will follow other states’ lead on mask mandates.
While some Republicans are pointing to Texas and Mississippi, which lifted their mask mandates this week, DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney says there’s no timeline for dropping Ohio’s statewide mask requirement, which has been in place since July.
“We don’t have a firm date to say when we will get to where we need to be, where the vaccine has done its job and protected us in lieu of masks.”
DeWine’s office says his statewide address, his third primetime speech of this pandemic, will continue “his conversation on where we are in our fight against the coronavirus and our progress towards reaching the end of the COVID pandemic."
You can watch the governor's speech on the state'sOhio Channel.