COLUMBUS – Health officials are sounding the alarm over an increase in COVID-19 cases in Franklin County, but they are not pushing the panic button.
The state health department upgraded Franklin County to Alert Level 4 – “purple” — on the Ohio Public Health Advisory System due to a sustained increase in COVID-related emergency room visits, outpatient visits, and hospital admissions, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Thursday.
“While today we are not close to the numbers that we saw at our peak in November and December, moving to level ‘purple’ is a stark reminder to everyone that COVID-19 is still here and actively circulating in our community,” Columbus Health Commissioner Dr. Mysheika Roberts said.
Local health leaders say the new designation will not trigger a return to curfews, stay-at-home recommendations or other restrictions, but it serves as what Roberts termed “a wake-up call.”
“Today’s announcement is a call to action. It reminds us of the severity of COVID-19 and that the pandemic is far from over,” Franklin County Health Commissioner Joe Mazzola said.
Ordinarily, being designated Level 4 means a county’s residents should only leave home for supplies and services but Roberts and Mazzola recommend continuing normal activities, like school and work, while safety safety precautions, such as hand-washing, avoiding groups, maintaining a social distance staying of six feet away from others, wearing your mask, washing hands and getting the vaccine.
DeWine blamed the increase in health care utilization on a more contagious variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 which has been detected in several states.
Franklin County’s 121,703 total cases of COVID during the pandemic is still tops in the state but the incidence rate of 230.8 cases per 100,000 residents between March 31 and April 13 is only 16th and trails the rates in Cuyahoga, Lucas and Summit counties.
Ohio’s statewide case incidence number has reached 200 cases per 100,000 people as compared to 144 cases per 100,000 people four weeks ago. DeWine has promised to lift health restrictions if the number falls to 50 cases for two weeks.
More than 36 percent of Ohioans have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine and the number who have completed the vaccine regimen is approaching 25% but there are currently more than 1,300 COVID-positive patients in Ohio’s hospitals, a 28% increase since April 3. The number grew by nearly 200 on Thursday
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The state Thursday reported 2,146 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of Ohioans infected during the pandemic to 1,048,109.
The seven-day average positivity rate is 4.5%.