Union County Case Count: Currently, there are 34 individuals considered actively ill and in isolation and 1 person is currently hospitalized due to COVID-19. The number of reported new cases (for current illness) has ranged between 20 to 28 cases per week during August. This is down from the second half of July when reported new cases ranged from 30 to 35 new cases (for current illness) per week.
To date, 251 individuals have been released from isolation and considered no longer infectious. Since the first reported case on March 20, the Union County Health Department is reporting 286 cumulative cases of COVID-19 as of Aug. 24. Of the cumulative cases, 236 individuals had lab confirmed illness and 50 were probable cases per CDC definition (includes 17 positive antibody tests for past infection and 3 positive antigen tests indicating current infection). To date, 20 individuals have been asymptomatic and 18 individuals required hospitalization related to their COVID-19 illness. One death related to COVID-19 has been reported. The cumulative rate of reported COVID-19 cases for Union County is 547 per 100,000 residents. The median age is 38.5 with an average age of 39.6.
Back to School: Fairbanks, Marysville, Trinity & St. John’s all headed back to school with North Union to follow in early September. As students and teachers headed back to the classroom, Health Commissioner Orcena shared some of the core strategies that have been driving the partnership between Union County schools and the Union County Health Department. You can hear the update from the Health Commissioner at: https://www.facebook.com/unioncohealthdept/videos/351634649176607
The core strategies driving the return to school are focused on reducing as much risk as possible for the students and staff as they return to in-person learning. The first and most important strategy starts at home – SYMPTOM MONITORING. No one knows their child better than the parent. It is vital for parents to do a daily symptom check of their child and keep sick children. The second strategy is called the 2 BARRIER GOAL. This is the concept of trying to maintain 2 barriers between students/staff at all times. This can be achieved by any combination of masks, social distancing, and physical barriers. When we can use 2 of these strategies together (like masks and social distancing in a classroom), we can mitigate the risk to others and lessen the impact of a case of COVID-19 on the school body.
Union County Remains Orange: Union County remains at a Level 2 Public Health Alert through the Ohio alert system. The alert system uses seven indicators when creating the alert level. Union County is currently meeting three of the seven indicators. We are meeting the indicators for new cases per capita, sustained increase in new cases, and the proportion of cases in non-congregate settings.
New Case Per Capita – Union County had a rate of 67.81 new cases (by recent illness onset) per 100,000 people over the previous two weeks. This is above the CDC threshold for moderately high disease activity set at 50 new cases per 100,000 people.
Sustained New Cases – Union County had at least 5 consecutive days of an increasing 7-day new case average (by recent illness onset) over the previous three weeks.
Non-Congregate Settings – In at least one of the previous three weeks, at least 50% or more of new cases were in the community rather than a long-term care facility or prison.
