MANSFIELD — The decline of new COVID-19 cases in Richland County continues, hitting a five-month low Thursday, according to new data Thursday from the Ohio Dept. of Health.
There were 162 new cases reported in the last two weeks, which is 133 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s the fewest number of new cases in the county since Oct. 22, when the number of new coronavirus cases began to spike around the state.
Richland County’s case rate pealed on Dec. 10 at 1,375 in two weeks, or 1,134 per 100,000 residents.
The rate of new COVID-19 cases in the county has dropped 40 percent in the last month.
Across the state, the numbers of new cases also continued to decline, hitting 143.8 new cases per 100,000 state residents. That’s down from 155 last week and 180 two weeks ago, according to Gov. Mike DeWine during a Thursday press conference.
The governor has said he will lift all state COVID-19 restrictions when the state falls below 50 new cases per 100,000 residents during a two-week period.
During a visit on Wednesday to a vaccine clinic in Shelby, DeWine estimated the health orders could be lifted in seven weeks at the current pace.
“It might be more or less, we don’t really know,” he said. “The faster we get people vaccinated, and the more people continue to wear masks. We’ve got to stay on defense with the masks and offense with the vaccine.”
The number of residents getting the vaccines continues to rise. As of Thursday, 2.5 million Ohio citizens have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, or 22 percent of the eligible population.
In Richland County, 23,113 residents have at least one dose, or about 19 percent of the county’s adults.
On Tuesday, DeWine announced expanded vaccine eligibility in Ohio beginning on March 19 for phases 1E and 2C. Phase 1E includes those with cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease, and obesity. Phase 2C extends eligibility to Ohioans who are 40 and older.
Beginning March 29, eligibility will be expanded to all Ohioans ages 16 and older. FDA emergency use authorization only allows those ages 16 and 17 to receive the Pfizer vaccine.
Eligible Ohioans can book an appointment to receive the vaccine at any one of Ohio’s 1,300 local vaccine providers using this online portal.
Richland County continued to hit the same two indicators of the seven indicators in the Ohio Public Health Advisory System — new cases per capita and percentage of cases found in non-congregate care. There were no current cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday in the county’s nursing homes and assisted living centers.
Hospital admissions linked to COVID-19 in the county have also declined, from 1.14 in a seven-day period on March 4 to 0.14 in a two-week period on March 16.
Crawford County saw a rise in new cases this week, rating as the third-worst per capita in the state on Thursday. The county had 90 new cases in the last two weeks, or 216.9 per 100,000 residents.
