COLUMBUS – Governor Mike DeWine addressed a barrage of internet rumors about “FEMA camps” being established in Ohio to quarantine residents against their will, dismissing them as “garbage” and “ridiculous.”
“There’s just absolutely no truth in this, there’s no substance behind it. It’s just garbage,” he said during his regular televised coronavirus briefing Tuesday.
I want to clear up any confusion about the latest non-congregate sheltering order that is getting some attention.
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) September 8, 2020
He was responding to stories that started with a report by a right-wing online newspaper and amplified by a social media post by a Republican lawmaker who wants to impeach DeWine, claiming that the state was setting up facilities where individuals, including children, who tested positive for COVID-19 would be isolated.
“This is absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “It is not true…Families will not be separated. Children will not be taken away from their loved ones.”
The reports referred to a “non-congregate sheltering order,” first issued on March 31 and renewed on April 29 and August 31, which DeWine says creates a funding mechanism to allow for federal reimbursement for communities that “choose to offer alternate locations for people to safely isolate or quarantine outside of their homes,” allowing others in the household to remain at home and unexposed to the coronavirus.
The facilities, if approved by local health officials, would be totally voluntary, he said.
The option was made possible by President Donald Trump’s March 31 declaration of a state or emergency in Ohio and has been used in a handful of cases, DeWine said.
The state on Tuesday reported 656 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 for a total of 131,992 with 4,298 deaths. The number of active cases climbed to 21,713.