COLUMBUS, Ohio — While most Northeast Ohio counties sit at orange Level 2 or yellow Level 1 on the state’s Public Health Advisory System, one county increased to red Level 3 during the weekly update on the color-coded map.
Summit County, which last week was at Level 2, increased to Level 3 Thursday, due to a sustained increase in cases and emergency department visits for COVID-19-like illness, which DeWine said is an early warning sign for an outbreak of the virus.
On Aug. 20, DeWine said Summit County had an average of five visits per day to the emergency department and in a week increased to an average of nine visits per day. DeWine also noted a sustained increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations in Summit County.
The state has traced outbreaks to workplaces and in a fraternal club, in which case two individuals who had COVID-19 and were contagious visited the club and spread the virus to other members of the club and employees, who then spread it to their families at home. A total of 12 people tested positive for the virus, four people have been hospitalized and two are seriously ill as a result of that outbreak, DeWine said.
In this week’s update of the Public Health Advisory System, 68 counties remained at the same level and nine counties dropped from Level 2 down to Level 1.
Wayne County moved down from Level 3 to Level 2, leaving six red counties on the advisory system, including Butler, Mercer, Montgomery, Preble, Putnam and Summit.
