Ohioans should avoid travel to 15 states and are asked to quarantine for 14 days if they visit them. The Ohio Department of Health revealed the record-breaking list of 15 states Ohioans should not travel to on Thursday.
Each of these states has a COVID-19 test positivity rate of 15% or higher. Ohio’s rate stands at 10%. Topping the list is South Dakota with a positivity rate of a whopping 54.7%. ODH warned that Missouri and Oklahoma could soon be added to the list.
Ohioans should avoid traveling to these states for both personal and business reasons. Anyone who must travel is asked to stay home and self-quarantine for 14 days after they return to Ohio.
Here’s a breakdown of the travel alert states and their COVID-19 positivity rates:
- South Dakota 54.7%
- Iowa 49.3%
- Wyoming 41.8%
- Idaho 41.5%
- Kansas 41.3%
- Alabama 24.7%
- Montana 18.7%
- North Dakota 18.0%
- Utah 17.8%
- Pennsylvania 17.0%
- Wisconsin 16.0%
- Mississippi 15.3%
Red Health Alert
Ohio’s current COVID-19 positivity rate stands at 10%. Sixty-eight out of Ohio’s 88 counties are now on Red Health Alert for COVID-19 cases.
Governor Mike DeWine pleaded with Ohioans to take the virus seriously. “We don’t want another shutdown. We can all avoid a shutdown if we are very careful. This is within our control. We don’t have to let it get that bad. We don’t have to let it get to the point where hospitals are full, we all have it in our power to prevent this.”
DeWine threatened to shut down bars, restaurants, and gyms again next week if Ohioans did not start complying with state orders to wear masks in public places.
According to Scioto County EMA, there are 489 active cases of COVID-19 in Scioto County bringing the county’s total to 1,416 cases during the pandemic. A total of 17 people have died with 910 presumed to have recovered. That puts the death rate for COVID at about 1%. In comparison, the death rate from the flu is around .1 percent. That makes COVID-19 ten times deadlier than the flu.