Scioto County COVID death
The county recorded its first COVID-19 death and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said day care providers can return to full classroom capacity. Let’s take a look at today’s important announcements.
Scioto County EMA Director Larry Mullins said a Scioto County Resident has died of COVID-19. This is the first death linked to COVID-19 for the County. Mullins said he couldn’t give many details due to privacy regulations. He did say the patient was a 58-year-old man who died in a Columbus after being transferred to a hospital there. He offered condolences to the family.
Scioto County’s COVID-19 count increased by 12 today. That brings the total number of cases to 150 with 55 active cases in the county. Ninety of those 138 people have recovered.
Ohio’s COVID-19 cases increased by 1,320 on Tuesday. The Governor said, 1,144 people are currently hospitalized with the virus. We break down important information about day cares, county fairs, and a local church outbreak in these next 4 slides.
Day Cares Back To Full Capacity
Effective August 9th, Ohio childcare providers are allowed to return to their normal class size and ratios. Providers who choose to stick with the stricter COVID-19 class size requirements will get a significant subsidy from the state.
Providers who return to normal class size lose the subsidy. DeWine said. “When child care reopened, I vowed to monitor the data and make adjustments as needed. We will continue to closely monitor reports of COVID in child care, as well as compliance with rules and best practices, and respond as needed to keep our children, families, and teachers safe.”
The governor thanked all child care providers for their service to Ohio families. “Thank you. These are not easy times. We are grateful for your hard work and sacrifice.”
When asked if he would consider pushing back the physical reopening of Ohio schools, DeWine said he didn’t think he was in a position to tell local school districts if they should hold in-person classes or stick to virtual. “We don’t know what the future is. We’ve got mixed numbers. Whats this world going to look like? No one can tell them. I can’t tell them. I don’t think any of us know which one of those decision is the right decision.”
No More Fairs
DeWine pulled the plug on county fairs in the state. He said counties had tried to find a way to safely hold the events but it wasn’t working out. “We simply cannot have a safe fair.” After Friday, July 31, no more traditional county fairs are permitted in 2020.
Governor DeWine said all fairs would be limited to junior fairs with livestock competition and other 4-H and FFA competitions for kids.
Outbreak Linked to Church
Some recent Scioto County cases are linked to a Lucasville Church and its vacation Bible school. Yesterday, Scioto EMA Director Larry Mullins issued an urgent plea that who attended any event at the Lucasville Church of God is self-quarantine immediately. He contacted the media late Saturday afternoon and asked us to get this information out as soon as possible.
We were the first to tell you the Lucasville Church of God was temporarily closed due to issues related to COVID-19. He said. “The Scioto County Health Department reported that there have been several cases of COVID-19 associated with the Lucasville Church of God.” The church is located on Morris Lane in Lucasville.
Red Alert
The recent spike in COVID-19 cases in the county led the Governor to declare Scioto County in Red Alert health status. In just one month, the number of cases increased from 33 to 138. Factors involved in declaring a red alert include:
- 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
In our region, Lawrence and Scioto are currently at Red Alert status.
