DeWine: Ohio will begin rolling back COVID-19 restrictions May 1

COLUMBUS — Ohio will begin rolling back COVID-19 restrictions May 1, with the health care and administrative sectors coming back online first, and others following in the coming weeks.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine during a Monday briefing on the state's coronavirus response announced several preliminary measures at the fore of the state's gradual re-opening:

• Health care providers in the state may resume all medical procedures — as long as they don't require an overnight stay at a hospital — on Friday, May 1. The order includes dentists and veterinarian's offices, the governor said.
• General office workers may also return to work on May 4.
• Beginning May 4, businesses in the manufacturing, distribution and construction fields may also get back to work, regardless of whether they were closed before, DeWine said.
• On May 12, consumer, retail and service businesses will also re-open.

All businesses will be required to provide each employee with a face covering such as a mask; screen employees for symptoms; maintain good hygiene measures; clean and sanitize workspaces at the start and close of business daily; and limit customer capacity to no more than half of what's allowed under fire safety codes.

DeWine also announced further protocols specific to each sector, which will be available on coronavirus.ohio.gov later today.

Stay-at-home orders will remain in effect come May 1, though employees of reopened businesses will be able to leave for work, DeWine said.

"We're trying to ease out. We're trying to get Ohio back working," the governor said. "We know there's more things to do. We need to see how this works. We need to monitor the numbers. We need to see how our tracing and testing is going.

"We believe we can live up to those goals we put up there."

This story was originally published April 27, 2020 at 2:46 PM with the headline "DeWine: Ohio will begin rolling back COVID-19 restrictions May 1."