Guidance on proms, graduations, festivals coming today
New Ohio public health order consolidates previous mandates, focuses on ‘common-sense’ guidelines.
Guidelines on proms, graduations and other spring events should be available today, said Ohio Department of Health Director Stephanie McCloud on Monday.
Gov. Mike DeWine also said that even as the state rolls out vaccines to college students this week, he wants to work to get high school students vaccinated.
McCloud announced she was issuing a new public health order aimed at consolidating previous orders while also emphasizing face masks and social distancing. The new orders ease rules for large outdoor gatherings.
DeWine said the orders are “common sense” and clarify that things such as proms, graduations and festivals can occur.
“You can do about anything, it’s about how we do it,” said DeWine.
The orders, which should be released by today, stress wearing
face masks while in public or with those outside of your household and social distancing.
“The goal here is to get back to basics, to make sure that we can have a smooth path to return to our lives,” said McCloud.
She reminded Ohioans that while in public, groups should not be larger than 10 people and should stay at least 6 feet away from other groups.
Event organizers should provide one-way traffic flow to prevent crowds and congregating, she said. Indoor events will have a limit of 25% capacity. There will be no limit on outdoor events.
The orders show that “sim- ple steps can save lives and help put this pandemic behind us,” said ODH Chief Medical Officer Bruce Vanderhoff.
“I want to emphasize what we know today, and what we know today is that masks are powerful,” DeWine said.
This week the state plans to begin offering the COVID vaccine on college campuses in an effort to boost vaccine rates and encourage students to get the shot before leav- ing campus for the summer.
In addition to reaching out to college students, DeWine said his office has contacted local health departments about reaching out to high school students about getting vaccinated.
The decisions are entirely up to the individuals and, in the case of the 16- and 17-year-olds, they’d have to bring in a signed permission slip to get vaccinated, DeWine said.
“We very much encourage young people to get vaccinated,” the governor said. “We now have the ability to vaccinate with We know the 16- Pfizer that and there 17-year-olds [vaccine]. are trials being done for those that are 12 and over,” he said. “I would hope that by the beginning of school next year, we will be able to vaccinate a lot more of our young people whose parents want them vaccinated.”
As of Monday, 3,721,565 people in Ohio have received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 2,188,726 peo- ple have finished the vaccination, according to ODH.
Ohio has reported 2,918 cases of coronavirus in the last two days. The state health department did not update the COVID dashboard on Easter Sunday.
Since the pandemic has started, the state has recorded 1,026,929 total cases.
In the last two days, Ohio has reported 12 ICU admissions and 139 hospitalizations for a total of 7,462 and 53,445 respectively.