COLUMBUS, Ohio — As Ohio passed 7,000 deaths Monday, Gov. Mike DeWine announced the state will remain under curfew at 10 p.m. each night.

What You Need To Know

  • Tuesday's case report will clear a backlog of 12,600 rapid results

  • Ohio could pass 500,000 cases, just 10 days after hitting 400,000

  • The 10 p.m. curfew is getting an extension due to the numbers

Instituted as a 21-day restriction, DeWine now says he cannot let the curfew expire as scheduled Wednesday, for the state is reporting more than 9,000 daily cases.

During an afternoon briefing, the governor announced that Tuesday's case numbers will be inflated as the state clears a backlog of 12,600 antigen tests. Ohio could cross 500,000 total cases Tuesday, just 10 days after Ohio passed the 400,000 mark.

Nurses spoke at DeWine’s briefing sharing their fatigue and pleaded for residents to modify behaviors to reduce transmission of the virus.

Those antigen testing cases will be added as positives due to an adjustment to Center for Disease Control and Prevention's reporting practices for pending, or “unconfirmed" results of rapid tests. Cases will be dated to their occurrence following the technical counting change.

Officials say they are optimistic the state’s latest numbers are indicating the spread of the virus is finally plateauing after weeks of acceleration, but the number Monday — 9,273 new cases, which is the sixth-highest date yet — was not a positive sign for the state.

Sustained case reporting around the current seven-day average of 9,033 will continue to bring “dire” consequences, DeWine said.

“Heads of hospitals have told me it’s unsustainable at this level. So, we've got to not only slow it down from going up, but we also have got to start taking it down,” he said. “We hope that we’ve plateaued out. We don’t know that. Even If we’re plateaued out, it’s not sustainable for a very long period of time.”

On Monday, there were 5,121 COVID-19 patients receiving hospital care. ICU units were treating 1,163 COVID-19 patients and 711 people were on ventilators.

DeWine provided an update on the distribution of the state's students among three categories of pandemic learning models. As of the latest count, 44.7% of students are learning virtually, 29.1% are full in-person, and 25.1% are hybrid.

Addressing the vaccine plan, the governor said when vaccine shipments begin to arrive hospitals, they will follow the state's instruction to prioritize the limited initial doses for “people who are most in danger.”

He said the 10 state hospitals that have been selected to administer doses will be responsible for vaccinating health care workers and others who are “in contact with people who have COVID-19.” The governor said the state will be writing the roadmap for the hospitals.

The governor said health departments receiving vaccine doses will be instructed by the state with a list of groups to target. The governor cited first responders as an example for the first batches of vaccines.

As for the long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, that are receiving the bulk of the first Pfizer vaccine shipment to Ohio, DeWine said it will be easiest if everyone who needs a shot shows up to the facility on the same day, including employees who are not working that day.

The governor said CVS and Walgreens will get everyone immunized all in “one stop,” returning for the second-dose in the sequence in January.