Governor lifts state emergency

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The State of Emergency in Ohio caused by the COVID-19 pandemic would be lifted on Friday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced in a Thursday news release.

While the state of emergency is being lifted, DeWine stressed that those not yet vaccinated should do so by finding a clinic close to them at gettheshot.coronavirus.ohio.gov.

He also announced new information pertaining to nursing home and assisted living facility visitation. DeWine said that starting Friday, the Ohio regulations describing how visits can occur will be removed, meaning the residents will be allowed to have more than two visitors and there is no longer a scheduling requirement.

The governor also said that the state nursing homes will still be expected to continue to follow federal guidance from the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services, and nursing homes and living facilities will also be expected to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance. He said there will still be a testing requirement as well for staff members that are not yet vaccinated, meaning they would need to continue to be tested twice a week.

DeWine said that the Ohio Department of Aging will host a series of webinars starting Friday morning that will “ensure facilities have access to all the information and resources necessary for safe and healthy operations.”

He also noted the newest person to win the Ohio Vax-A-Million drawing. He said there are currently 3,428,514 vaccinated adults that have entered for a chance to win $1 million and 150,187 vaccinated youth that entered for a chance to win a four-year college scholarship from any college or university in the state. He said that is an increase of 66,311 adult entries and 6,583 youth entries compared to last week.

The news release noted that the two winners this week spoke with DeWine about why they decided to get vaccinated. It said the winner of the $1 million prize was Suzanne Ward from Findlay in Hancock County and the winner of the college scholarship was Sean Horning from Cincinnati.

“I did not have any hesitation when my age group came up to get vaccinated,” Ward said in the news release. “I would encourage anybody to get vaccinated. I think it’s the smart thing to do from a health perspective.”

The news release said there is one more drawing in the Ohio Vax-A-Million program remaining. For more information and on how to enter, go to ohiovaxamillion.com.

Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.

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Some mandates remain in place

By Jacob Clary

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