At a press conference on December 21, Governor Mike DeWine stated that Ohio is not experiencing a drastic surge in cases related to Thanksgiving gatherings which is attributable to the fact that Ohioans greatly reduced their contacts and travel over the holiday. According to anonymized data published in the New York Times, there was a 60 to 70% reduction in contacts over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“If we can get through Christmas and New Year’s without a significant surge, we will be much better positioned to start 2021 against this virus,” said Gov. DeWine. “It’s critical that we keep up the work we started over Thanksgiving for the next several weeks to prevent another surge in January.”
Ohio Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Bruce Vanderhoff, MD, stressed the need for citizens to continue following the Stay Safe Ohio Protocol to help prevent Ohio hospitals from becoming overwhelmed.
“Up to and through Thanksgiving, Ohioans took important steps to avoid letting COVID-19 overwhelm our hospitals, but in spite of this, our hospitals remain extremely busy,” said Dr. Vanderhoff. “Adding a post-holiday spike would create a terrible situation, so we can’t let ourselves be lulled into a sense of complacency as we move into the next two-week period, the biggest holiday season on our calendar.”