Gov. Mike DeWine will give a statewide address Wednesday night, making it the second time he will make a public appeal about the severity of the coronavirus' spread to residents since the pandemic began in March.
The governor will speak on “the critical stage Ohio is at in battling COVID-19 and its impact on Ohio moving forward,” according to a news release Tuesday. The speech is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
Early on, DeWine stood out as a rare GOP governor ringing the alarm on the virus and enforcing aggressive precautions statewide. The lifelong politician also stood alone within his party in pushing for mask-wearing and social distancing enforcement. Ohio has remained under a statewide mask mandate since July.
But despite DeWine's consistent pleas, the state began to see the second wave in October when cases more than doubled, reaching an all-time high for daily cases Tuesday with 6,508.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Ohio has risen over the past two weeks from 2,332.57 new cases per day on Oct. 25 to 4,466.86 new cases per day Nov. 8, according to The COVID Tracking Project.
On Tuesday, the Health Department reported 6,508 probable and confirmed cases, along with a record-high 386 hospitalizations. Ohio has reported more than 260,000 probable and confirmed cases to date, and 5,547 deaths.
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