COLUMBUS — Ohio’s response to the ongoing surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations will be guided be the principle of “slow down” rather than shutdown, Gov. Mike DeWine said Monday.

What You Need To Know

  • DeWine said Ohioans need to "slow down" their interactions to curb the spread of COVID-19

  • The state can avoid a shutdown that the governor says would have mental health remaifications

  • Major announcements on new measures to address the virus surge are expected Tuesday

Giving a series of addresses to regions of southern and eastern Ohio, DeWine revealed that new decisions on how to respond to the worsening pandemic would come tomorrow.

The state is awaiting highly-anticipated announcements on the fate of indoor dining and gyms. Last week, DeWine shared that he was considering closing these establishments. Until today, when the governor moved up his decision to Tuesday, his last comments had indicated that a decision would be shared during his Thursday press conference. 

“Too many of our fellow citizens are still dying," he said Wednesday. “If the current trend continues, and cases keep increasing, we will be forced to close restaurants, bars, and fitness centers." 

DeWine’s decisions are expected to be less restrictive than those announced in Michigan Sunday, where the state’s governor closed schools and dining. DeWine signaled Monday he would not take the most restrictive options in front of him at this point in time.

“We’re looking for a way to allow people to work, to keep kids in school, to protect our elderly in nursing homes,” he said. “But to do that, we have to change what we do. We have to pull back some.”

DeWine restrained from giving specifics, only building anticipation for his 2:00 p.m. press conference Tuesday, where he will make the announcement.

It was not clear if DeWine’s remarks Monday were meant to suggest that indoor dining will be excluded from the new restrictions, or if a temporary shutdown of indoor dining is still in the cards.

Despite his optimistic tone when it came to the state being able to avoid a shutdown, the governor’s outlook seems to have only worsened since last week when he set up the anticipation for the decision on indoor dining and gyms.

He said he now feels “scared” for the state after earlier in the day hosting a 7:15 a.m. weekly call with county health commissioners.

“It was scary for me quite candidly. I came away and I said it for the first time, I told my staff,” he said. “These health departments are now being pummeled, beaten up just by the number of cases,” DeWine said.

Health department staff are putting up a “courageous” effort to meet the demands of the current pandemic surge, DeWine said, but contact tracing is becoming an overwhelming task. 

DeWine said the state of the pandemic forces new decisions about “what is essential in our lives.” The priority is avoiding a shutdown, he said.

“I just can’t stress it enough, we’ve got to pull back. We don’t want a shutdown. We don’t want to shut this state down. That has ramifications for mental health, it has ramifications for drug addiction, overdoses, all these things go up when you shut a state down.”

Instead of shutting down, DeWine said residents have to make changes in their individual lives to behave more responsibly.

Ohio’s hospitals are “certainly not overwhelmed yet,” DeWine said on CNN Sunday. But the early signs suggest trouble is just around the corner, he said.

The governor noted that some hospitals have announced they are pulling back on elective surgeries.

“We don’t like to see that. We don’t like to see any health care delayed. So that’s the early sign that there is certainly a problem,” DeWine said.

DeWine will continue his addresses to Ohio communities into this week with planned stops in Lima, Fort Wayne, Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, following his stops in Huntington, West Virginia and the Ohio County Airport in Wheeling, West Virginia Monday morning.