Lima City Council held a regular meeting earlier Monday evening. On Monday's agenda was the COVID-19 Pandemic hazard pay bonus which would have authorized the auditor to pay a one-time bonus of one-thousand dollars for eligible city employees who worked during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020. On Monday night, city councilors voted to table the legislation for a committee of the whole meeting.

DeWine gave his last state address in 2019. The governor lost that annual chance to talk about state issues due to the coronavirus pandemic, but ironically he became the most viewed governor in state history by giving dozens of daily and later weekly online news conferences documenting Ohio's efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Allen County Health Commissioner Branden Fischer explains, “We’ve seen after pretty much every holiday in 2021 COVID spread increase following those holidays and its just the small gatherings that turn larger when the spread takes place and goes thru a lot of households.”

While it is not a requirement, DeWine says that we have the perfect storm with coronavirus just as kids are heading back to school. The Ohio Department of Health says there have been 3,235 new cases Tuesday and continues the upward trend the state has been seeing. The number of cases per 100 thousand residents over a two-week period reached 236. It was 17 on July 7th. DeWine says parents and school officials need to decide what is best for their children, and he urges that students wear masks when they head back to school.

With many Ohio health orders being effectively lifted Tuesday, June 2nd, this will be the last day we report COVID numbers. If numbers spike in the future, we will continue our coverage on them. Further updates can be found on coronavirus.ohio.gov. Here are the local and state COVID-19 numbers for June 1, 2021. There were no deaths in our viewing area. Allen County has 8 new cases, and Auglaize County has 7 cases. Shelby and Logan Counties add 2 cases each. Hardin and Paulding Counties increase by 1 case each. Putnam, Mercer, Hancock, and Van Wert counties have no new cases. As for statewide numbers, there were 62 deaths and 334 new cases. 91 people were taken to the hospital and 16 patients were placed in the ICU. The Ohio Department of Health is reporting 925 more people are presumed recovered from COVID-19.

Here are the local and state COVID-19 numbers for June 1, 2021. There were no numbers released on Memorial Day. Tuesday's data is for both Monday and Tuesday. Shelby County is up by 3 new cases, and Auglaize County by 2. Allen, Mercer, Hancock, Hardin, and Van Wert Counties all add 1 case each. Putnam, Logan, and Paulding Counties have no new cases. As for statewide numbers, there were 622 new cases over the holiday. 92 people were taken to the hospital and 14 patients were placed in the ICU. The Ohio Department of Health is reporting nearly two thousand more people are presumed recovered from COVID-19.

The governor reminds residents that restrictions continue through June 1st. He says the state's number of cases per 100,000 is steadily coming down. He accounts that to the vaccine. On June 2nd residents will have the option to not wear masks and that goes hand in hand with businesses choosing whether masks will be required or not after June 1st.

Here are the local and state COVID-19 numbers for May 17, 2021. Allen County has 8 new cases, Hancock County is up by 5 cases, and Paulding County by 3 cases. Putnam, Mercer, and Van Wert Counties increase by 2 cases each. Auglaize, Hardin, and Logan Counties add 1 case each, and Shelby County has no new cases. As for statewide numbers, there were were 729 new cases today. 72 people were taken to the hospital, and 7 patients were placed in the ICU. The Ohio Department of Health is reporting 1,046,730 people are now presumed recovered from COVID-19.

The Ohio Department of Health says, there are 1,014 new cases reported Friday, which is down from the one-week average of 1,175.  There were also 89 new deaths.   87 people had to be hospitalized and 10 patients were placed in the ICU.  Plus, there are 1,457 more people that are presumed recovered from coronavirus. 

Speaking from the Statehouse earlier, the governor talked about Ohioans working together, and making sacrifices to save lives and keep the state moving forward during the pandemic. He also said it was the availability and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines that make lifting the health orders possible.