MANSFIELD — A 92-year-old woman has become the eighth fatality in Richland County due to COVID-19, Richland Public Health announced Monday.
The woman was living in a residential care setting when she became infected with the virus, according to public health educator Reed Richmond.
The woman was hospitalized on July 12 and died on July 15, Richmond said. The death was first reported on the Ohio Department of Health COVID-19 website on Saturday afternoon.
“The employees of Richland Public Health express their sympathies to family and friends of this latest loss to the coronavirus pandemic,” Richmond said.
Half of the county’s deaths have been linked to nursing home or long-term residential care facilities, as well as 35 of the total positive tests. One local nursing home, Liberty Nursing Center of Mansfield, has had 21 residents and four staff members test positive, though none of those cases remain open.
The Ohio Department of Health COVID-19 website updates such long-term care facility information weekly, most recently on July 16.
One of the remaining four deaths involved a Richland County man who contracted the virus while working at the Marion Correctional Institution.
Other Richland County deaths were reported July 14, June 24, June 22, June 2, May 20, April 17 and April 8.
As of Sunday at 2 p.m., the ODH website reported 428 positive COVID-19 tests since the pandemic began, as well as 62 total hospitalizations and 313 presumed recoveries.
On July 17, Richland County became “red” under the state’s Public Health Awareness System, indicating “very high exposure and spread.” Facial coverings in public around the county also became mandatory that day.
