COLUMBUS, Ohio — During a coronavirus briefing Friday, Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted announced that casinos, racinos, amusement parks and waterparks will be able to reopen in two weeks, on June 19, under specific guidelines issued by the state.
Outdoor theaters will also be able to reopen once they submit a reopening plan to the state, DeWine said.
DeWine said that the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament held on July 13 through July 19 in Dublin will also be able to be held after the state received and approved its plan.
“In each one of these cases I won’t go into details today, but each one of these cases, they have come up with plans that in many cases dramatically reduce the number of people, provide for sanitation, and some cases provide for one way traffic,” DeWine said. “They are quite elaborate plans that we believe are consistent with protecting the public and consistent with allowing Ohioans to go about their summer and enjoy their summer in the way that they are used to doing that.”
On Thursday, the state announced that certain entertainment facilities will be able to reopen on June 10 under certain guidelines and restrictions, including movie theaters, zoos, playgrounds, recreation centers, indoor sports facilities and museums.
Husted said the state is still working hard to continue opening up the sectors that have not yet been addressed in Ohio’s reopening.
“We recognize that even with all of the openings of yesterday and today that there are a handful of things that we have not opened or provided guidance on. That work continues, whether it’s professional or youth sports, particularly those that involve contact. We regularly, once a week, talk to the Ohio High School Athletic Association on building plans forward for that, or those large venues, stadiums and auditoriums where you have a large number of people —figuring out how you can appropriately scale and create that safe environment there,” Husted said.
“We learn new things every day, that’s important to know. We only know so much more today than we did when this started,” Husted said. “CDC gives new guidelines, the science evolves. And then when that happens, then we revisit these plans, both in terms of what opens and how it opens because we strive to make things easier for businesses to help them comply with this in a safe manner as impossible.”
