MANSFIELD — Richland County, which Thursday remained “orange,” or level two, in the statewide Public Health Advisory System, has reported its 13th death due to COVID-19.
Richland Public Health said the latest death due to coronavirus was a 72-year-old woman who contracted the illness while living in a long-term care facility. RPH public health educator Reed Richmond said the death certificate was filed Tuesday.
It’s the second COVID-19 death in the county in the past week. The 12th death was on Aug. 7, an 85-year-old male who was also at a long-term care facility, according to Richmond.
Eight of the county’s 13 reported COVID-19 deaths have been linked to nursing homes or long-term residential care facilities. One of the remaining deaths involved a Richland County man who contracted the virus while working at the Marion Correctional Institution.
In remaining “orange,” Richland County triggered the same two “indicators” it met last week — new COVID-19 cases per capita and also the proportion of cases in non-congregate settings, according to the Ohio Department of Health website.
Ashland and Crawford counties remained yellow, or level one. Knox County, which had been orange the last two weeks, improved to yellow.
A county is yellow if it triggers zero or one indicator; orange if it triggers 2-3; red if it triggers 4-5; and purple if it triggers 6-7. There were no purple counties in the state again this week.
The two “triggers” met in Richland County worsened from last week.
Richland County reported 70 new cases in the last two weeks, which is 57.78 per 100,000 population. That’s up from 54.48 on Aug. 6 and 47.05 on July 30. The new-cases-per-capita indicator is “triggered” at 50 new cases per 100,000.
The county reported that 83.3 percent of the new cases were found in non-congregate settings, up from 64.29 percent on Aug. 6 and 66 percent on July 30. The indicator is “triggered” at 50 percent.
Richland County didn’t trigger any of the five other indicators, though the numbers reflected an uptick in a few of the categories.
The number of emergency room admissions, rated on a seven-day average, increased to 3.57 this week, compared to 3.14 last week.
Hospital admissions, also weighed on a seven-day average, climbed to 1.14 this week, up from 0.43 a week ago.
The increase in new cases indicator, also on a seven-day average, dipped to 2.57 this week, compared to 7.43 a week ago.
Richland County has reported 626 positive COVID-19 tests since the pandemic began in March with 82 total hospitalizations and 485 presumed recoveries.
