(8-20-24) The office of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced that he has tested positive for COVID-19 this morning, marking the fourth time since 2020 he has contracted the virus.

DeWine’s tested positive with his office saying he experienced mild, cold-like symptoms on Monday before noticing worsened symptoms Tuesday morning. DeWine is taking Paxlovid and will work from home throughout the next week.

This is the fourth time DeWine has announced he has COVID-19. His first time testing positive came in August 2020, followed by another diagnosis by his physician in April 2022. The most recent time DeWine tested positive for COVID-19 before Tuesday came in September 2023.

COVID-19 cases have been on the rise in the United States since June with the most prominent variant now being KP.3.1.1, a variant of the Omicron family. The first Omicron variant case in Ohio was detected in December 2021.

Ohio Department of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard, Ohio has had an average of over 6,600 reported new cases each week for the past three weeks. Over 230 hospitalizations were reported last week with 11 ICU admissions as well. Over 44,000 deaths have been reported in Ohio with COVID-19 since cases began to be reported in early 2020.