COLUMBUS, Ohio — When the coronavirus first came to Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) was hailed for his response.

However, as the pandemic has dragged on, his own party has turned on him.

In early March, DeWine acted swiftly.

Days before the first cases were reported, DeWine banned fans from attending the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus.

The event typically brings in athletes and fans from dozens of countries.

"You have to make the best call you can for the safety of the people of the state," he said on March 5.

Days later, three people tested positive and DeWine declared a State of Emergency.

"We are at a critical time and we need to get this right," DeWine said on March 10.​

He then shut down schools before any other state, banned mass gatherings and visitors at nursing homes.

He forced bars and restaurants to stop indoor dining.

And one week before Ohio's primary election, DeWine insisted Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders cancel rallies they had scheduled in Cleveland, which both did.

DeWine also made the presidential primary a mostly mail-in election and extended the voting deadline into June.

On Sunday, March 22, then-Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton signed a stay-at-home order preventing Ohioans from leaving their homes for two weeks unless it was to get food, exercise orother essential supplies.​

That day, DeWine said: "This is an order. It's not a suggestion. It's an order but it's a reasonable order. If everybody does this, if everybody cooperates, we're gonna save a lot of lives."

The governor's actions were praised at the time.

However, DeWine and Acton extended the order until the end of May, even though cases were not equally affecting Ohio's 88 counties.

Protests subsequently broke out at the Statehouse.

And a week later, the Republican-led Ohio House of Representatives passed an amendment seeking to limit the power of the state's health director.

"This bill ensures that the Ohio legislative body will not be effectively made mute and impotent during times of crisis," said Wayne County Republican Representative Scott Wiggam on May 6.

The pushback was too much for Acton, who would step down a month later.​​

During her announcement on June 11, Acton said: "I really wanna empower the team back at ODH to keep doing that work and I'm gonna keep advising and working with them."

In late July, when the daily case count exceeded 1500, DeWine mandated all residents to wear masks outside of a few exceptions.

"Dr. (Amy) Acton used to talk about the Swiss cheese. A couple of those layers on there makes a huge, huge difference," said DeWine on July 22.

The order is still in effect although it is not heavily enforced.

As for Acton, she left the ODH entirely in early August.

DeWine's Faces COVID Scare; Draws Trump's Ire

Days later, DeWine was on his way to Cleveland to meet President Trump when he had his own COVID scare.

A rapid test indicated the governor had tested positive.

Hours later, a more accurate test concluded he was negative.

Many Americans don't get lab results for weeks.

Back then, DeWine was asked if he was worried about the perception of his health being more important than other Ohioans.

He responded, "Sure I'm concerned about that perception. You know we made a decision that I was either, as the governor of the state, gonna be confined here and limited in what I could do for 14 days or we'd try another test. So we did another test."

Trump came back to Ohio several times before the November election.

The events, like the one in Circleville in October, featured thousands of maskless supporters although the governor never condemned the president.

A spokesperson for the governor said the difference was the Democratic events were "very early in the pandemic, and we didn't know much about the virus."

After the president lost the election, he appeared on Twitter to encourage a primary challenge to DeWine in 2022.

Trump had reportedly been watching Fox News when the network aired an interview DeWine had done with CNN the day before in which the governor recognized Joe Biden as president-elect and said the transition should begin.

The tweet read: "Who will be running for Governor of the Great State of Ohio? Will be hotly contested!"

Weeks later, Clermont County Republican John Becker formally introduced 12 articles of impeachment accusing DeWine of abusing his power in his response to the pandemic.

The process was never taken seriously by the legislature.

"At some point, this foolishness has got to stop," said DeWine on November 30th.

The bill to limit the state health director's power during an infectious disease outbreak was recently sent to the governor.

DeWine vetoed the bill.

The veto is unlikely to be overturned by the legislature this session but lawmakers have vowed to reintroduce the bill next year.Since first issuing the stay-at-home order in March, DeWine has been hesitant to do it again.

And now that the vaccine has arrived, perhaps the orders will remain a thing of the past.

DeWine has navigated his own path during the first 10 months of the pandemic.

He has said once COVID is behind us he will evaluate his own performance.

Until then, DeWine says he is more worried about the virus than his critics.​