COLUMBUS, Ohio — Within the next week, the CDC is expected to give new guidance on wearing masks indoors. This comes about a month after it updated its recommendations on what type of mask you should wear.
Since 2020, the great mask debate has sparked protests across the country and pitted parents against school leaders.
10TV put together a timeline of Ohio's mask orders to show how we got to this point.
- April 27, 2020 - Governor Mike DeWine issued a state-wide mask mandate for customers and employees.
- April 28, 2020 - DeWine withdraws the mask mandate.
- July 8, 2020 - Ohio started a county mask mandate based on risk level.
- July 28, 2020- DeWine issued a statewide mask mandate.
- June 2, 2021- All health orders, including the mask mandate, were lifted.
Since then, it's been up to county, city, and school leaders to put mask mandates in place. With several local school districts telling kids it's okay to leave the masks at home. Some ask, is it too soon? Dr. Joe Gastaldo with OhioHealth says it is.
"Hopefully by this spring or summer, but we are not there yet, "said Dr. Gastaldo. "In Franklin County, we still have high rates of community transmission. We have over 170 cases per 100,000 population. That fits the definition of high rates of community transmission. Also, here in our country, we are still averaging more than 2,000 deaths a day from COVID-19," he said.