COLUMBUS (AP) — Governor Mike DeWine says wearing masks while in public during the coronavirus pandemic should not be a political issue.
DeWine was reacting on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday to North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum’s call for “support and encouragement” for those wearing masks since they may be protecting someone vulnerable to the virus.
DeWine called those comments “spot on” and said “This is one time when we truly are all in this together.”
DeWine earlier issued an order for people to wear masks while shopping in stores but then reversed himself, calling the order “a bridge too far.”
The state Department of Health on Monday reported 32,477 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 1,987 deaths.
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The head of the Ohio corrections system says state prisons must begin reopening to accommodate the slow return to business as usual.
Ohio has the most coronavirus deaths in prisons of any state.
But Annette Chambers-Smith said this week that the agency needs to figure out how to live with COVID-19 going forward.
Chambers-Smith says the department has begun accepting new inmates from jails again and must soon resume the normal process of transferring inmates when necessary.
Her comments won’t please inmate advocates arguing for the mass release of inmates. But legal action could force changes.