Coronavirus: Ohio closes restaurants and bars as New York official calls for similar shutdown

Experts are calling for social distancing to stop spread of virus

Ohio’s governor has ordered all bars and restaurants in the state to close in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, as pressure rises on New York officials to do the same.

“We will be issuing an order closing all bars and restaurants in Ohio beginning at 9pm tonight,” governor Mike DeWine announced on Sunday.

“I'm aware that this will impact many, many good workers. I can't tell you how sorry I am, but we will work to mitigate the suffering. It is our goal for everyone to get through this,” he wrote.

It came as a New York councilman called for a similar shutdown in the Big Apple, following a weekend in which many of the city’s residents refused to self-isolate.

The number of confirmed cases in the city stood at 329 on Sunday, and nearly double that in New York state. Three people are known to have died so far.

Despite a sharp rise of infections, New Yorkers appear not to have heeded calls for people to stay at home as a precautionary measure. On Saturday night, bars and restaurants were still full of people.

“We are in a state of emergency and we must move quickly to mitigate the impact of coronavirus/Covid-19 on our city. All non-essential services must be closed, including bars and restaurants,” said city council speaker Corey Johnson.

“We should keep essentials like grocery stores, bodegas, pharmacies, and banks open. And restaurants that can make deliveries should be able to stay open to provide delivery service for New Yorkers. We must be bold - but we must also be prepared,” he wrote on Twitter.

New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday that he expected the number of cases to rise significantly in the coming days and weeks.

“The infection rate will be massive,” he said, adding that further measures may be taken to prevent the virus spreading further.

The call to close bars and restaurants came amid a similar debate over whether to close the city’s schools. Governor Cuomo said on Sunday that public schools in New York city, which account for more than one million students, should be closed temporarily.

Later the city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, announced that schools in the city would indeed close, leaving 1.1 million children at home. He came to the decision despite having expressed fears that the measure would force frontline medical workers to stay home and look after their kids.

New Jersey Governor Philip Murphy, meanwhile, said a shutdown of schools there was “imminent.”

Also in New Jersey, the mayor of the city of Hoboken, just across the river from Manhattan, ordered the closure of bars from Sunday. The city is also implementing a curfew from Monday night, during which residents will be forced to stay indoors between 10pm and 5pm.

"As I am writing this message on a Saturday evening, I received a call from our Police Chief Kenneth Ferrante notifying me of a bar fight in downtown Hoboken, with at least one person falling in and out of consciousness, and our police having to wait for over 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, because our EMS is inundated with service calls," Mayor Ravi Bhalla said in a statement on Saturday.

"This is unfortunately a contributing factor why we cannot continue bar operations which can trigger calls for service that are delayed in part because of this public health crisis."