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COLUMBUS, Ohio--Dr. Amy Acton, Ohios state health director who has become a household name around the state during the coronavirus crisis, has resigned effective immediately, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Thursday.

Acton will remain as the governors chief adviser on health issues, DeWine said. Lance Himes, the Ohio Department of Healths general counsel who briefly served as state health director twice under ex-Gov. John Kasich, will become interim director, the governor said.

Asked why shes leaving now, Acton said the decision to resign is something Ive been struggling over the last couple of months.

She said her routine during the past couple months, which involved getting up at 4 a.m. to read and catch up while going to bed late, wasnt a sustainable thing.

Acton said with the state reopening, Ohio is entering a new phase of learning to resume life with the coronavirus.

I think there is a sort of natural shift that is occurring here that makes it sort of a good time so I can refocus," she said.

The governor said he tried in vain to convince Acton to stay as director, and he praised her wise advice and counsel and extraordinary bedside manner since he appointed her last year.

Acton has drawn wide admiration in Ohio, as well as around the nation, for her appearances during DeWines daily coronavirus briefings, providing easy-to-understand analysis and information about the virus in a calm, soothing voice, and passionately pleading with Ohioans to stay at home and take other precautions. Bobbleheads and cartoons have been made featuring her.

An April poll found almost 64 percent of Ohios registered voters had a favorable opinion of Acton, and almost 84 percent said they trusted the coronavirus information she was providing.

But as the DeWine administration has moved in the past six weeks to lift the states stay-at-home and business-closure orders, Acton and the Ohio Department of Health have become increasingly sidelined. Starting last month, the governor turned to a number of working groups," composed of business people and experts, to determine how various sectors of Ohios economy will reopen.

Acton has also become a lightning rod of criticism from opponents of the DeWine administrations coronavirus orders, who claimed she overestimated the deadliness of the coronavirus and overreached her authority in ordering closures.

Republican lawmakers tried to strip her of her power, and protesters demonstrated outside her home in suburban Columbus.

Asked how she felt about the criticism, Acton said any human being would be affected by the backlash, especially as she has never run for public office.

But, she said, for anyone doing this job, youd be surprised how much a lot of that isnt your focus.

She added: For me, my focus -- the need to protect Ohioans and save lives was so intense, especially during those first days (of the crisis), she said. I can honestly say, like -- it had to be a single point of meditation on the task at hand, and that remains that.

Acton was named health director in April 2019, becoming the final member of DeWines cabinet to be appointed. Before joining the DeWine administration, she most recently served as a community research and grants administrator at the nonprofit Columbus Foundation.

A Youngstown native, Acton has described how she grew up abused, neglected, and occasionally homeless. She attended Youngstown State University, and she paid her own way to earn a medical degree from what is now Northeast Ohio Medical University, followed by a masters degree in public health from Ohio State University.

Dr. Amy Acton resigns as Ohio Department of Health director – cleveland.com

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