MANSFIELD — Richland County improved to “red,” or level three, on Thursday in the state’s color-coded COVID-19 monitoring system.
The Christmas Eve announcement from the Ohio Department of Health came after the county spent three straight weeks at “purple,” or level four, the most severe indicator of coronavirus spread in a county.
The change in designation was announced through the state’s COVID-19 Public Health Advisory System website, updated each Thursday at 2 p.m. Richland County remains “high incidence” by CDC standards due to the number of cases being reported.
According to ODH, Richland County met three of the state’s seven indicators for virus spread this week. It met six last week and all seven on Dec. 10.
Richland County was the only county designated “purple” last week. There were none this week, according to the ODH website. There were four “orange,” or level three counties, and the remaining 85 were “red,” including Ashland, Crawford and Knox counties.
The three indicators met this week were:
— New cases per capita — Flagged if greater than 50 cases per 100,000 residents over the last two weeks. Richland County reported 1,241 new COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks, or 1,204.32 per 100,000 residents. That’s down from 1,328 new cases on Dec. 17, 1,375 on Dec. 10 and 1,097 on Dec. 3. The last time the county’s two-week total was below 1,000 was 885 on Nov. 26.
— Proportion of cases not in a congregate setting — Flagged if proportion of cases that are not in a congregate setting goes over 50 percent in at least one of the last three weeks. Richland County was at 30.95 percent Dec. 16-22, but was at 65.75 percent and 86.82 percent for the two prior weeks.
Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed occupancy — Flagged if percentage of the occupied adult ICU beds in each region goes above 80 percent for at least three days in the last week, AND more than 20 percent of adult ICU beds are being used for COVID-19 positive patients for at least three days in the last week. The county which includes Richland County triggered this indicator for seven straight days (Dec. 15-22).
Indicators not triggered this week were sustained increase in new cases, sustained increase in ER visits, sustained increase in outpatient visits and sustained increase in new COVID hospital admissions.
The numbers in these categories have trended down in recent days. For example, in sustained increases in new cases, a county is flagged if there is an increasing trend of at least five consecutive days in overall cases by onset date over the last three weeks.
On a seven-day average, Richland County was at 134.7 new cases on Dec. 3, which had declined to 71.24 on Dec. 22.
