‘THE NUMBERS JUST SPIKED’
From college town to Ohio River city, COVID-19 cases spike in rural counties
ATHENS — Tony’s Tavern, a small but long-standing Athens staple, stands off the corner of the college town’s Court and West State streets. Its doors are locked, lights are dimmed and patio barren.
The bar has been closed for 114 days. Since Gov. Mike Dewine’s initial order to shut down all bars, restaurants and dining establishments beyond carryout took effect on March 15.
Tony’s chooses to remain closed even though Dewine allowed bars and restaurants to reopen back in May out of concern for their staff, co-owner Cheryl Sylvester explained. A few of their employees had autoimmune deficiencies. Others had small children.
But Sylvester and her husband, Tony, were planning a cautious but hopeful return to business on July 9.
“We installed acrylic panels all the way up and down the bar,” Sylvetser said, “Employees were gonna wear masks — we were all about following the rules, then, boom! The numbers just spiked and got out of control.”
Athens county has reported 284 total cases of coronavirus as of Wednesday, nearly eight times the number on July 2, triggering the Ohio Public Health Advisory to designate the county a Level 3 alert last week, according to data from the Ohio Department of Health.
The four levels are color coordinated, ranging from “active exposure and spread” yellow all the way to “severe exposure and spread, only leave the home for supplies and services” purple. Athens at a Level 3 is a red county.
Rural counties across the state are seeing COVID-19 case numbers rise. Dewine’s administration issued Scioto County a Level 3 rating and also elevated contiguous Lawrence and Adams counties to orange Level 2 status.
“When we saw the economy and travel reopen is when we saw this increase, and it steadily got quicker and quicker,” said Molly Davis, an epidemiologist and emergency response coordinator for Lawrence and Scioto counties and Portsmouth city health departments.
“Really, what contributed,” she said, “was a lack of masks while traveling.”
Scioto and Lawrence counties are now reporting a total of 106 and 152 COVID-19 cases, respectively, as of Wednesday.
Athens Mayor Steve Patterson believes Ohio University students living in Athens over the summer who frequented bars, houses and porch parties figured in the county’s sharp uptick.
“Eighty-eight percent of our positive cases have been within the 20-29 yearold demographic,” Patterson said.
The mayor said city council pushed an ordinance through last week mandating face-mask use throughout Athens after several bars shut back down when employees tested positive for the virus.
“We are on the watch list for purple [Level 4],” Patterson explained. “I’m watching the numbers. I’m always very cautious about this, but the numbers at the end of last week and through the weekend appeared to be lower.”
The number of newly reported daily cases has decreased from a high of 29 on July 8 to a single case reported on
Monday, according to data from the state health department.
Ohio’s alert system is a helpful tool for the Athens City-county Health Department to forecast and respond accordingly to the data, Administrator Jack Pepper wrote in an email to the Dispatch.
“We were certainly disappointed that we moved from orange to red,” he wrote. “Fortunately we have seen a decline in numbers from last week and are of course hopeful that trend continues and will soon be returning to orange or yellow.”
And, a week after the mask ordinance was passed, Athens residents appear to be adhering to it.
That’s true in Portsmouth, too, Molly Davis said.
“This is Appalachia,” she said. “Appalachians are super independent and they’re used to taking care of themselves and their own communities. They don’t enjoy being told to do something against their will.”