COVID-19 cases in Highland County have gone down, according to the New York Times COVID Tracker, which said Monday that the county was seeing 16 new cases per day, which is about 37 cases per 100,000 in population.
The last time The Times-Gazette reported on COVID-19 data, which was on Aug. 30, the Tracker said the county was seeing 19 new cases per day, about 44 cases per 100,000 in population.
The tracker gave some of the latest trends for the county. It said that the community level of COVID-19 in the county is “high” based on cases and hospitalizations, according to the most recent Center for Disease Control (CDC) update on Sept. 8; the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has fallen in the county, but deaths have stayed about the same; and the test positivity rate for the county is “very high, suggesting that cases are being significantly undercounted.”
The update also said that since the beginning of the pandemic, the county had seen a total of 12,319 reported cases, and at least one in four residents have been infected.
The New York Times COVID-19 Tracker gave a COVID-19 update on Sept. 8 for the U.S. as well. It said known cases for the virus have “fallen significantly” in recent weeks, with the national average going under 90,000 cases just prior to Labor Day.
“The holiday has skewed current figures somewhat, since many states reported delayed or incomplete data in the aftermath of the long weekend,” the update said. “Still, case counts are in far better shape today than a month ago, when nearly 120,000 cases were announced each day.”
The update also said hospitalizations have seen “sustained improvement” as well. Fewer than 35,000 people were in American hospitals due to the virus every day, which was a drop of 13 percent over the past two weeks.
Concerning death statistics, the data is “particularly volatile” because of holiday reporting disruptions. It said, however, that deaths were “far lower” than a year ago when the Delta variant was causing more than 1,500 deaths per day.
In other news, Highland County’s COVID-19 case rate stood at 512.0 cases per 100,000 in population over the previous two weeks, according to the Ohio Department of Health Coronavirus Dashboard, which was last updated Thursday. The case rate was above the state average of 361.8 cases per 100,000 in population over the same period, and ranks the county 20th among the state’s 88 counties in terms of the highest case rates.
In terms of vaccinations, Highland County is currently at 40.66 percent of the county’s residents that have started their vaccines, according to the ODH COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard, which was last updated on Thursday. The state average for “vaccine started” is 63.75 percent.
In terms of completed vaccines, the state average is 59.08 percent, while the Highland County average is 37.68 percent.
The dashboard also said there have been 7,764 “first booster” doses and 1,500 “second booster” doses administered in the county on or after Aug. 12, to people that were already fully vaccinated.
Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.
