Trump comments: Ohio GOP Governor Mike DeWine tests positive for coronavirus after taking the test as a protocol to meet with President Trump, who is campaigning in Cleveland, Ohio as the November presidential election nears.....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest

Ohio GOP Governor Mike DeWine

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.

COLUMBUS, Ohio- Ohio GOP Gov Mike DeWine, elected governor in 2018 following a heated campaign against Democrat Richard Cordray, has tested positive for COVID-19, DeWine the second U.S. governor behind Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt to be infected with the coronavirus.

"I just saw him on 'Cuomo Primetime' on CNN last night," wrote Sheila Harper on Facebook regarding the governor. "Praying for a full recovery."

DeWine spoke to reporters after testing positive for COVID-19 and said he feels fine, though he said he does have asthma.

The governor said he has full confidence in the lieutenant governor and that "my intentions are to do part of a press conference tomorrow."

Lt Gov Jon Husted was tested too, and he tested negative.

Ohio's first lady, Fran DeWine, is also undergoing coronavirus testing, sources said Thursday.

A Republican and President Donald Trump ally, and a former U.S. senator and Ohio attorney general, DeWine, 73, is quarantined in his home in Cedarville and has no immediate symptoms.

He took a test as part of protocol prior to a scheduled meeting in Cleveland with President Trump, who is campaigning in Northern Ohio today, and the test came back positive.

United States
President Donald Trump

During a press conference Thursday at the Cleveland Hopkins Airport the president, in the Cleveland area also to do fundraising as the Nov 3 presidential election nears and he faces an uphill battle against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, said "we want to wish him [DeWine] the best, he'll be fine."

The news of Ohio's highest ranking political official contracting the coronavirus comes as a Franklin County common pleas judge this week upheld a new rule imposed by the Ohio Liquor Control Commission at the request of Gov DeWine.

That rule requires that liquor sales at bars and restaurants in Ohio, practically all but over the counter liquor stores, which generally close by 11 pm in Ohio, stop selling liquor at 10 pm, a ruling that comes in response to a lawsuit filed Aug. 4 by a group of bar and restaurant establishments in the Columbus area.

Under the new rule, last call is at 10 pm, though bar and restaurant patrons can continue finishing their drinks until 11 pm.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Kim Brown denied the injunction request filed against DeWine and the liquor commission by lawyers for the bars and restaurants. 

Pins Mechanical and 16-Bit Bar and Arcade, which has a location in Lakewood, a neighboring city to Cleveland, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Court, a general division court in Ohio that sits in Columbus, the state's capital. 

A Democrat, Brown said in her ruling that the Ohio Liquor Control Commission has the authority to regulate the bars and restaurants and to determine operating hours, the argument offered by DeWine and state officials.  

Masks must also be worn in public in Ohio, DeWine has ordered.

Ultimately, a precedent setting lawsuit is expected in federal court to test the constitutionality of DeWine's actions regarding the limiting of liquor sales in establishments throughout the state, which took effect July 31, and the actions of the liquor commission, sources said.

Ohio has reported more than 96,000 confirmed cases and 3,596 deaths as the nation faces a re-spiking of the virus.

The deadly virus for which there is no vaccine has spread to all 50 states and Washington, D.C. and the nation has nearly 4.8 million reported cases and some 159,000 people dead,  worldwide figures showing that there are 18.8 million cases globally and roughly 706,000 deaths.

More than 55 million Americans remain out of work due to the crippling pandemic.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.