MANSFIELD — COVID-19 numbers remained either relatively flat, or even trending down by some measurements, on the Ohio Public Health Advisory System on Thursday.
Richland County met three of the state’s even indicators, one more than last week, though hospital admissions due to coronavirus declined in the county and also in the region.
However, the county remained “red,” or level three in the statewide measure launched in July to monitor virus spread, due to continued high incidence of the virus by CDC standards.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday afternoon said the number of cases across the state is trending up.
“The new cases per capita at the statewide level has increased since last week — this is not good,” DeWine said. “We were already at a very elevated level at 657 cases per capita last week, and now we’re close to 740.”
“On the other hand, the portion of ICU patients with COVID has gone down slightly. ICU use is a lagging indicator, so this is still coming down from our pre-holiday peak. However, it does look as though our cases are starting to increase again,” the governor said.
Across the state, 83 counties were ranked “red.” Four counties in southeast Ohio were “orange,” or level two, and Hamilton County, in southwest Ohio, was ranked as “purple,” or level four.
Two counties, Lorain and Clermont, were placed on the state’s “watch list” and could become “purple” next Thursday.
The Ohio Department of Health also announced on its website Thursday that 361,603 residents have begun the two-dose COVID-19 vaccine, or roughly 3 percent of the state’s population.
In Richland County, which will begin administering the vaccine to senior citizens over age 80 next week, it was reported that 2,810 people have gotten a first dose, or about 2.3 percent of the county’s residents.
Here is a look at this week’s OPHAS indicators:
New cases per capita — Flagged if greater than 50 cases per 100,000 residents over the last two weeks. Richland County saw a slight uptick in this category in Thursday’s report. There were 925 new COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks, up from 858 reported the week prior.
It’s still a marked improvement over mid-December when the county reported 1,375 new cases on a two-week period. The county remains well above the indicator threshold with 763 cases for 100,000 residents.
Sustained increases in new cases — Flagged if increasing trend of at least five consecutive days in overall cases by onset date over the last three weeks.
The county didn’t meet this indicator and has seen the number of new cases on a seven-day average decline from 82.57 on Jan. 1 to 57.43 on Jan. 12.
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 met this indicator, topping the threshold in each of the last three weeks with 70.59 percent, 68.10 percent and 56.25 percent.
Sustained increase in Emergency Department visits for COVID-like illness –Flagged if increasing trend of at least five consecutive days in the number of visits to the emergency department with COVID-like illness or a diagnosis over the last three weeks. Richland County didn’t meet this indicator and has seen the number decline, on a seven-day average, from 19.71 on Jan. 2 to 15.43 on Jan. 12.
Sustained increase in outpatient visits for COVID-like illness — Flagged if 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 three weeks.
The county didn’t meet this indicator and has seen a decline, on a seven-day average, from 51.57 on Dec. 24 to 31.14 on Jan. 12.
Sustained increase in new COVID hospital admissions — Flagged if increasing trend of at least five consecutive days in the number of new hospitalizations due to COVID over the last three weeks.
Richland County didn’t meet this indicator this week and has declined, on a seven-day average, from 3.43 on Dec. 13 to 1.57 on Jan. 12.
Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed occupancy — Flagged if percentage of the occupied adult ICU beds in a 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.
Richland County triggered this indicator on Thursday, meeting the percentages on Jan. 12, Jan. 7 and Jan. 6.
