CLEVELAND — Two Northeast Ohio counties remain at the CDC's "high" community level for COVID-19.
Trumbull and Mahoning counties remained in the "orange" zone (where they have been for weeks) when the state's latest coronavirus figures were released Thursday. This means health experts still recommend face masks for residents in those areas while indoors and in public.
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To meet the high threshold, counties must either see at least 20 new COVID hospitalizations per 100,000 residents in a given week or a combination of both 200 new cases and 10 new hospitalizations per capita. Currently, the statuses of both Trumbull and Mahoning are being exclusively driven by hospitalizations: Trumbull County saw just 113.15 new cases per 100,000 people in the last seven days, but 23.9 new hospitalizations. The latter figure was exactly the same in Mahoning County, which recorded 147.37 new cases per capita.
By contrast, Cuyahoga County reported 16.4 new hospital admissions per capita, but stayed at the CDC's "medium" level by virtue of only 151.65 new cases. All other Northeast Ohio counties are also in the "yellow" zone, including Ashtabula, Erie, Lorain, and Medina after being "orange" just two weeks ago.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine did not enact any new mask or health mandates all previous times counties went "orange" (partly due to a controversial new law limiting his pandemic powers), and is unlikely to do so this time. However, private businesses and establishments across the state are still largely free to enact their own policies, and experts do say those in "yellow" zones may want to think about masking if either they or someone they regularly interact with is immunocompromised.
The state of Ohio reported more than 16,000 new coronavirus cases Thursday, the largest seven-day increase since September and only slightly below last week's eight day figure (extended due to the previous Thanksgiving holiday).