Ohio released best practices and minimum requirements for the opening of college campuses later this summer, Gov. Mike DeWine announced at his press conference and via Twitter Thursday.
“Each campus must develop policies and procedures for COVID-19 testing and isolation of symptomatic students, faculty, and staff members,” said DeWine. “Testing of symptomatic individuals should take priority over all other testing tactics.”
Details are at coronavirus.ohio.gov .
DeWine also said, “I’ve spoken with leadership in the General Assembly, and we are requesting that the Controlling Board approve our initial request on Monday to allocate $200 million for higher education and $100 million for K-12 educational institutions.
He said this funding comes from federal CARES Act dollars, and schools would be able to use it to meet their unique individual needs. “We intend for this funding to be very flexible to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
He added, “We intend to make this funding available to all public and private K-12 schools and to all of our 2- and 4-year colleges and universities, both public and private, including adult career tech providers.”
The state posted updated COVID-19 numbers Thursday: 57,506 confirmed cases with 3,825 probable ones for a total of 61,331, with 2,749 confirmed deaths and 257 probable ones due to COVID-19 for a total of 3,006 deaths.
Jobs
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) reported to the U.S. Dept. of Labor Thursday that for the 10th straight week — June 28-July 4 — continued applications for unemployment benefits have declined.
Those who remain jobless filed 347,587 fewer continued claims last week compared to the peak in April.
In addition, for the week ending July 4, ODJFS reported 33,483 initial jobless claims to the U.S. Dept. of Labor.
The total number of initial jobless claims filed in Ohio over the last 16 weeks — 1,464,290 — is more than the combined total of those filed during the last three years.
Over the last 16 weeks, ODJFS has distributed more than $4.9 billion in unemployment compensation payments to more than 736,000 Ohioans. Of the more than 1 million applications the agency has received, about 94% have been processed, with about 6% pending.
In addition, ODJFS has issued more than $3.8 billion in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) payments to more than 411,000 PUA claimants.
