COLUMBUS — Richland County on Thursday remained “yellow,” or level one, for the fourth straight week in the state’s Public Health Advisory System, created in July to monitor COVID-19 spread.
Ashland County was “orange,” or level two, moving above “yellow” for the first time since Gov. Mike DeWine launched the four-tiered evaluation system.
Crawford and Knox counties remained yellow again this week.
Statewide, there were six “red,” or level three counties, the fewest since the system began. Those were Butler, Mercer, Montgomery, Preble, Putnam and Summit counties.
During his Thursday press briefing, DeWine was asked if he was “moving the goalposts” in the fight against the coronavirus.
During a Richland County commissioners meeting Tuesday, state Sen. President Larry Obhof said he was frustrated with the governor’s shifting goals that have emerged since the pandemic was identified in Ohio in March.
DeWine said restrictions imposed by the state have kept the virus down, but, “if we took mask orders off today, it would flare up just like that.”
“There is as much spread out there today as there have ever been,” DeWine said. “It would not be a wise time for us to let up.”
He said he looked at the restrictions as a price Ohio residents are paying for freedoms, including the ability to work and for children to go to school.
“We’re not going to keep any restrictions in place one second longer than we have to,” DeWine said. “But there is no indication this battle is over at all.”
In Richland County, just one indicator was met in the color-coded advisory system — new cases found in non-congregate settings. It’s the same one the county has triggered each of the past four weeks.
A county is flagged for this indicator if the proportion of cases that are not in a congregate setting goes over 50 percent. It was 90 percent from Sept. 2-8 in Richland County, which is actually down from 100 percent each of the two prior weeks.
According to the Ohio Department of Health website, updated Wednesday, there were no active COVID-19 cases in Richland, Ashland and Crawford counties in nursing homes or assisted living centers.
Richland County didn’t trigger any of the six other indicators:
New cases per capita — Richland County had 31 new positive tests over the past two weeks, or 25.59 per 100,000 population. A county is flagged here if it has more than 50 cases per 100,000 residents. This week is up from 22.29 on Sept. 3, though well below the 57.78 and 54.48 the county recorded on Aug. 13 and Aug. 6, when it triggered this indicator.
Sustained increases in new cases — This is measured on a seven-day average. Richland County was at 2.14 on Sept. 8, down from 2.29 on Sept. 1. This indicator is triggered if a county has an increasing trend of at least five consecutive days in overall cases by onset date over the last three weeks.
Sustained increase in emergency room visits for COVID-like illness — A county is flagged here if it sees an increasing trend of at least five consecutive days in the number of visits to the emergency with COVID-like illness or a diagnosis over the last three weeks. Richland County was at 0.14 on Sept. 8, down from 1.71 on Sept. 1.
Sustained increase in outpatient visits for COVID-like illness — A county meets this indicator if it shows an increasing trend of at least five consecutive days in the number of people going to a health care provider with COVID symptoms who then receive a COVID confirmed or suspected diagnosis over the last 3 weeks. Richland County was at 10.86 on Sept. 8, down from 13.57 on Sept. 1
Sustained increase in new COVID hospital admissions — A county is flagged on this indicator if it shows an increasing trend of at least five consecutive days in the number of new hospitalizations due to COVID over the last three weeks. Richland County was at 0.29 on Sept. 8, down from 0.71 on Sept. 1.
Intensive care unit bed occupancy — A county meets this indicator if the occupied ICU beds in each region goes above 80 percent for at least three days in the last week, AND more than 20 percent of ICU beds are being used for COVID-19 positive patients for at least three days in the last week. In Richland County’s region, just 2.72 percent of ICU beds were being used by COVID-19 patients on Sept. 8 and 57.3 percent of total ICU beds were occupied.
