“The main purpose of permitting spectators at school sports events is for officials and family members and loved ones of players, coaches, team staff members, other event participants, like marching band and honor guard, for both home and away teams to attend,” DeWine said.
Ideally, spectators would be limited to two or four family members, as long as the venue allowed for proper social distancing.
Schools will be able to request a variance to allow more spectators by submitting a plan to their local and state health departments. The variance would explain why the school needs a different capacity and how spectators would be able to social distance.
Schools asking for a variance should consider the following:
1) Is a variance needed for home and family members to attend?
2) Can everyone be socially distanced?
3) Can the home school prevent the requested number of spectators from congregating?
Ohio’s economy is continuing to recover following shutdowns earlier during the pandemic, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said.
As of Sunday, there were approximately 169,000 total jobs available on OhioMeansJobs.com, with almost 80,000 of those jobs having a salary of $50,000 or higher.
Coronavirus continues to spread in rural communities, with Darke County having the highest rate of occurrence by population in the state.
Darke County has 189.8 cases per 100,000 from Aug. 11-24, according to date released by Gov. Mike DeWine Tuesday.
Mercer County was second in the state with 189.4 cases per 100,000.
Preble and Auglaize counties also made the top 10, ranking fifth and seventh respectively. Preble County reported 156.5 cases per 100,000 and Auglaize County reported 146.7 cases.
Just under 850 cases of coronavirus were reported Tuesday, bringing the total to 116,495 total cases, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
DeWine noted that cases reported each day tend to be lower at the beginning of the week, reflecting limited staff working on the weekends.
There were 10 new deaths reported for a total of 3,996 throughout the pandemic.
Hospitalizations increased by 97 to 12,956 and 15 new ICU admissions were reported, bringing the total to 2,903.
The state is reporting 110,343 confirmed cases and 3,716 confirmed deaths.
Tuesday marks the first time the governor has spoken since some conservative state representatives started a measure to impeach DeWine.
Nino Vitale of Urbana, John Becker of Union Twp., and Paul Zeltwanger of Mason are listed as co-sponsors, according to ImpachDeWine.com.
Last week, DeWine announced that all sports could resume this fall and released guidelines for the performing arts.
Under guidance for the performing arts, patrons, volunteers, directors, producers, conductors and employees are required to wear face masks, Actors, dancers, musicians and other performers must wear masks while not practicing or performing.
Contact should be minimized between performers, stage managers, creative teams, directing staff and others as much as possible.
Congregating in the lobby during intermissions should be avoided.
For indoor venues, attendance can be no more than the lesser of 300 or 15 percent of fixed-seating capacity. For outdoor venues, attendance can be no more than the lesser of 1,500 of 15 percent of fixed-seating capacity.
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