The good news: Hamilton County’s weeks-long reign as Ohio’s most virus-ridden county mercifully has come to an end.
The bad news: Things still are pretty terrible here and throughout the state.
During an address on Jan. 28, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine revealed that Hamilton County had been downgraded from purple to red on the Ohio Public Health Advisory System heat map, which provides visual indicators about the spread of coronavirus for each county within the Buckeye State.
The map shows four levels of emergency regarding COVID-19:
- Yellow: active exposure and spread
- Orange: increased exposure and spread
- Red: very high exposure and spread
- Purple: severe exposure and spread
For much of January, Hamilton County had been Ohio’s only county with a purple designation, which also advises that residents only leave home for supplies and services.
The Regional COVID Communications Center reports 178,698 cases and 1,262 deaths related to coronavirus in the Cincinnati region as of Jan. 28. Hamilton County itself has 66,124 cases and 457 deaths, by far the greatest among area counties listed.
On Jan. 27, the Ohio Department of Health pulled the statewide “Stay at Home Tonight” curfew back to begin at 11 p.m. instead of 10 p.m., citing a sustained decline in COVID-19 cases and related hospitalizations around the state.
According to figures that DeWine cited on Jan. 28, there are 883,716 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Ohio and 11,006 confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths. A total of 45,786 Ohioans have been hospitalized throughout the pandemic, including 6,644 admissions to intensive care units.
But despite the decline in cases and related hospitalizations in Hamilton County and throughout Ohio, figures still are at alarming numbers, All but four counties in Ohio retain the red designation on the advisory map from last week, indicating very high exposure.
For more information, visit the Ohio Public Health Advisory System website.
This article appears in Jan 1-31, 2021.