Governor Mike DeWine upgraded Lawrence County to the Red Health Alert status due to a spike in COVID-19 cases. He upgraded Scioto County to red last week. Lawrence County’s cases stand at 176. Additionally, 74 new cases were confirmed in the past 2 weeks. DeWine said that many of the cases were traced to a bar, bus trip, and a funeral.
Scioto County added five new COVID-19 cases today. The new cases bring the total to 115. Scioto EMA Director Larry Mullins said 35 of those cases are active.
Here’s 5 Fast Facts
Antibody Testing
Lt. Governor Jon Husted said that antibody tests performed on blood donations by the Red Cross showed a 1.3% positivity rate. “Between June 15th and July 18th, the Red Cross reported 33,538 Ohioans donated blood, plasma, or platelets. Of these, 436 donors tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies – that’s a 1.3% positivity rate. It’s also important to note that during the same time period, hospitals and private labs performed 37,803 antibody tests for Ohioans with 1,624 positives. That’s a higher positivity rate than the Red Cross sample.”
Upgraded
Upgraded to red status this week:
- Clark
- Defiance
- Erie
- Hardin
- Henry
- Lawrence
- Marion
- Medina
Downgraded
Downgraded from red to orange alert were:
- Butler
- Lorain
- Summit
- Wood
Alert Levels
Ohio’s Health Alert Levels are as follows:
- 1 Yellow – Active Exposure and Spread
- 2 Orange – Increased exposure and spread
- 3 Red – Very high exposure and spread
- 4 – Purple – Severe exposure and spread
The indicators used to determine the ranking are:
- Number of new cases based on the population of the county
- A sustained increase in cases
- Cases not coming from high-risk settings like nursing homes or jails
- Increase in ER visits for COVID symptoms
- Sustained Increase in Outpatient visits for COVID symptoms
- Increase in new COVID hospital admissions
- ICU occupancy rate goes above 80% for three days
Red Alert
Red Counties as of July 23 are:
- Scioto
- Athens
- Franklin
- Union
- Delaware
- Licking
- Fairfield
- Pickaway
- Hamilton
- Clermont
- Montgomery
- Richland
- Allen
- Lucas
- Cuyahoga
- Clark
- Defiance
- Erie
- Hardin
- Henry
- Lawrence
- Marion
- Medina