Richland hits purple; Shelby extends remote learning

to Tarvin’s announcement, Richland County had moved to purple from red, which represents very high exposure and spread of COVID-19.

“The purple level indicates severe exposure and spread of coronavirus and the recommendation to only leave home for supplies and services,” Richland Public Health said in a news release. “It does not curtail businesses or the need to report to work.”

For the second week, Richland County met all seven indicators for new cases per capita (905.46 cases per 100,000 population, up from 730.48), new case increase (1,097 new cases over the past two weeks, up from 885), non-congregate cases, outpatient hospital visits, hospital admissions, ICU bed occupancy and emergency department visits, the release stated.

In his televised briefing, Gov. Mike Dewine reported that Richland had joined four other counties as purple: Medina, Portage, Stark and Summit. Lake, Lorain and Montgomery remain purple.

“Residents should only leave home for supplies and services,” the Ohio coronavirus website states.

A chart presented by Dewine on Thursday showed Richland County ranked No. 10 in

Ohio among the 88 counties as ranked by highest occurrence of COVID-19. It showed 1,097 cases between Nov. 18 and Dec. 1 in Richland County.

Dewine on Thursday described the overall situation in Ohio as grim.

“Today we are reporting 8,921 new cases in Ohio, which is the fifth-highest case count we’ve seen in this pandemic,” he said in his briefing and on Twitter. “We have 396 new hospitalizations and 33 new ICU admissions reported in the last 24 hours. Sadly, we also have 82 deaths reported since yesterday.”

As of Thursday in Ohio, 5,142 patients were currently hospitalized, and 1,204 of those patients are in the ICU, he reported.

This is the first week since April where Ohio’s positivity for COVID-19 has increased above 15 percent, Dewine said. “Ohio’s travel advisory recommends Ohioans stay home except for necessary trips for supplies, as well as consistent mask-wearing and frequent hand washing,” he said.

Dewine also said that Ohio is still in discussions with the federal government about how much vaccine the state will receive and when.

“The situation is fluid, and I will provide more information soon,” he added.