What You Need to Know About Ohio’s Curfew

At the Tuesday, November 17 Coronavirus Press Conference, Governor Mike DeWine announced a new curfew for Ohio. Here is what you need to know about it.

• It will run nightly from 10PM to 5AM until December 10.
• There will be exceptions for those who are obtaining food, medical care, medical food, social services, or providing care for others.
• Travel to work, including volunteer work, is allowed.
• It does not apply to the homeless.
• People who live in unsafe homes, such as domestic violence victims, are allowed to leave and go to a safe place.
• It doesn’t apply to things protect by the First Amendment, such as religious observances and media activity.
• Travel required by law enforcement or a court order is allowed.
• Travel to obtain government services is allowed.

When talking about the curfew today, Governor Mike DeWine said, “We’re not looking for police to be out there pulling people over if they see them driving at night. We should assume they have a legitimate reason for being out. But if police see people congregated somewhere while the curfew is in effect, they can ask them to go home.”

He also said, “If you can stay home, stay home. This is very, very serious. We have to take this down. The reason why we haven’t issued a statewide shutdown is because of the ramifications of a shutdown. Everything we do during the pandemic is a balance. When we shut things down in the spring, we saw child abuse reporting going down because teachers generally report abuse. We saw a spike in mental health problems. We saw a spike in overdoses, we think because people took drugs alone and there was no one there to call 911. We know that Ohioans have it in their power to slow this down. That’s why we put an emphasis on personal responsibility. The big spread is coming from what people do in their personal lives when interacting with friends and family outside of their household.”