Ohio will be able to go forward with planning socially distanced and masked proms, graduations, and graduation parties. Gov. DeWine announced that the specific guidelines for those spring and summer events are to come, says FoxNews.

On Thursday, February 25, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced that Ohio  would allow seniors to participate in end of the year activities. According to Fox DeWine stated, “People will be able to plan for proms, they’ll be able to plan for graduation. There’s no reason these events cannot occur if we follow basic safety protocols,” He continued saying, “This is not maybe your dream of the prom with people having masks on, but you can still have a prom, you can still have a graduation. We wanted to signal to people today that you can start planning.” 

DeWine said new COVID-19 proticalls for proms and graduations will be released in the coming days. Recommendations for banquet centers will also be available at that time. Updated safety protocols for festivals, fairs, and parades are coming soon as well.

The governor mentioned in his conference that as of February 25, more than 1.5 million vaccinations have been administered statewide and that by the end of the week, all but one school district will have completed vaccination of K-12 school teachers and personnel.

With the completion of the first round of vaccines by the week’s end, nearly 98% of Ohio school districts are offering some form of in-person education.