A local legislator has reached out to Governor Mike DeWine about beginning to phase back in closed businesses, at least in West Central Ohio.
State Senator Matt Huffman has sent Governor Mike DeWine a letter asking him to consider a plan to get business doors back open. Huffman says it's a "Population Density" issue. Manhattan Island in New York has 8 million residents in a 23 square mile area. Franklin County in Ohio has more than 500 square miles and 1.2 million residents. They have 800 confirmed COVID-19 cases. While the 3 senate districts in West Central Ohio have the same amount of residents total as Columbus, but only 200 confirmed cases. Huffman supports each county's health district making their own decisions on what to open and the restrictions to leave in place because all regions are different.
“Perhaps these cases can be based on the number of cases that there actually are, the actual tested cases,” says Huffman. “And if the number is under a certain percentage of the population, that restaurants and other places can begin opening up May 1st. Maybe with some restrictions, the way the staff works, certain protective equipment, that maybe the capacity is less then it typically is. We're obviously going to lose businesses, it’s one thing to be shut down for two or three weeks, but it’s another thing to be shut down for six weeks.”
Huffman says people need hope. If they have that, they will continue to abide by the rules in place. When restrictions were put in place weeks ago, Huffman says the data and models a little over a week ago showed 10,000 new cases a day in Ohio. That didn't happen. New models are predicting 1,600 cases a day. He says this region is different than Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati.
