COLUMBUS – Like one-fifth of the world’s population, Ohioans woke up Tuesday morning under a form of lockdown: the state’s “stay-at-home” order, which started at midnight and remains in effect until April 6.
The order exempts several essential occupations and professions, from convenience store workers to nurses, and Gov. Mike DeWine says it will not be aggressively enforced by police officers eager to write tickets or make arrests.
“The law is an instructor. The law is a deterrent and what you hope is that the law does not actually have to be applied very often,” he said at his daily Statehouse news briefing.
DCSO's response to the @OHdeptofhealth's stay-at-home order@DelawareHealth @DelCoEMA @DelawareCoOhio pic.twitter.com/FANLnn9UFa
— Delaware County SO (@DelCoSheriff) March 23, 2020
Meanwhile, nearly 140,000 Ohioans filed unemployment insurance claims in one week, spurred by the sudden shutdowns of businesses and industries as more and more restrictions went into place to slow the spread of the virus.
Have you already filed for unemployment? No need to worry about adding the mass-layoff number. Our system will take care of it and process your claim. Need to file? Visit https://t.co/hm9nwYkCHk#COVID19OhioReady #InThisTogether pic.twitter.com/rz1XIH9LBh
— OhioJFS (@OhioJFS) March 19, 2020
“It triggered this immediate influx and this immediate surge versus in the past, we were able to see kind of a slower increase and progression,” said Kim Hall, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Ohio hasn’t previously seen claims spike like that, even during the Great Recession, and it put a strain on the system. Hall says 96 percent of applications for unemployment benefits are now handled by the website instead over the telephone.