COLUMBUS, Ohio — States across the country are easing their mask mandates for indoor settings as coronavirus cases nationwide have slowed down. Others have lifted the mandates in schools.
State leaders have cited declining COVID-19 infection rates and rising vaccination rates as the reason behind the decisions.
In Ohio, state health officials reported a steady decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations over the course of one month. During a press briefing, Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff has called this decrease “good news,” referencing a potential light at the end of Ohio’s pandemic tunnel.
With that good news comes a question that is most likely on many minds: Is Columbus close to dropping its mask mandate?
In short, while numbers are trending in the right direction, officials say we aren't there yet.
City council passed an ordinance last year, requiring both vaccinated and unvaccinated people to wear masks in indoor public spaces. Other cities like Bexley and Whitehall enacted similar mandates to help slow the spread.
At the time, the mandates were in response to the delta variant as Franklin County averaged 493 COVID-19 cases per day.
Statewide COVID-related hospitalizations reached a pandemic high in January 2022.
Fast forward to February 2022, Vanderhoof said those hospitalizations have since declined by more than 50%.
Leaders in Columbus, Bexley, Whitehall and Worthington announced Wednesday they could consider lifting mask mandates in the coming weeks.
This is in response to a dramatic decline in COVID-19 transmission rates and hospitalizations Columbus Public Health has been seeing.
Currently, Franklin County’s positivity rate is 14.1% and the case rate is 295 per 100,000.
If those trends continue, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and leaders from Bexley, Whitehall and Worthington expect “to consider lifting local face covering requirements in the coming weeks,” according to a release from the City of Columbus.
School districts in central Ohio have already begun relaxing their mask mandates because of the current trend.
Vanderhoff explained, while the numbers are declining, the state is not out of the woods yet.
"While there's no doubt we are quickly moving in the right direction, it's simply too early for us to declare victory given the reality that thousands of Ohioans are still being diagnosed with COVID-19 each and every day," said Vanderhoff.
A spokesperson for the city of Columbus told 10TV Franklin County is still in the CDC’s red category for high community transmission.
At the time the mask mandate was issued, Columbus Public Health recommended that the county's positivity rate needs to be between 5% and 7.99% and the case rate has to be 10-49 per 100,000 in order to move to the yellow level.