CEDARVILLE, Ohio — The surge in cases of COVID-19 in Northeast Ohio continues.
On Thursday, Gov. Mike DeWine revealed that 38 of the state's 88 counties are at Level 3 "red" in the state's coronavirus advisory system. It's an increase from 29 counties from last week.
However, Cuyahoga County is now on the state's watch list for Level 4 "purple." DeWine says in addition to exceeding the CDC’s threshold for high incidence, the county has a sustained increase in new cases, outpatient visits and hospital admissions. Cuyahoga County is at 101 cases per 100,000 people.
County health department officials report that they are seeing double the case volume compared to just two weeks ago. They also report that hospitals are seeing increased inpatient and outpatient volume and that social gatherings continue to be a problem.
Eight other counties in the Northeast Ohio area are at Level 3 "red" in the state's coronavirus advisory list.
- Geauga
- Lake
- Lorain
- Mahoning
- Portage
- Stark
- Summit
- Wayne
This week marks the first time that Geauga and Lake counties have been on the Level 3 list since the pandemic began. DeWine says while social gatherings in Geauga County have continued, there has been a drop off in compliance with mask-wearing and social distancing.
Lake County health officials have traced some of the virus spread to a large social gathering that then carried into a workplace. They have encountered resistance with contact tracing.
According to DeWine, 92.8% of Ohioans are living in a county that is red or high incidence. The state also had a record number of daily cases on Thursday with 2,425 reported in the last 24 hours.
Data shows that there are only four counties in Ohio that are yellow. This week marks the highest number of red counties and the lowest number of yellow counties to date. According to DeWine, 74% of Ohioans are living in a red county, while only 1% are living in a yellow county.
"Sadly, our situation in Ohio continues to worsen. For my fellow Ohioans who have felt that until now this virus really did not impact their life or their family and that they would react when it was really serious -- I say to them that the time is now," DeWine stated.