OTTAWA — Putnam County remains at a Level 3 Public Health Emergency, as the county continues to report a sustained increase in new cases and the highest number of new cases per capita in Ohio for a second week.
While Putnam County met four of the seven emergency indicators this week, the county saw improvement in three of those categories since it went red last Thursday.
There was a sustained increase in new cases, which rose from an average of 5.14 cases per day on Aug. 19 to an average of 11.14 cases on Aug. 29. But that measure has improved in the last week and now sits at an average of 3.29 cases per day as of Sept. 8.
Emergency department visits for COVID-like illnesses also rose to an average of 2.43 visits per day by Sept. 1, but that measure has also improved more recently.
Likewise, the percentage of new cases detected outside of long-term care facilities and other congregate settings has decreased from 95% in mid-August to 62.5% as of Sept. 8, still higher than the 50% threshold used by the state’s public health emergency rating system.
But it is unlikely that Putnam County will drop from red to orange anytime soon, as counties with more than 100 cases per 100,000 residents reported in a two-week period cannot move down a level even when no other indicators are met.
Putnam County reported 280.56 new cases per 100,000 people in the past two weeks, an increase from last week’s 268.7 cases per 100,000 people.
That’s been the case for Mercer County as well, which continues under a Level 3 emergency this week after its per capita case rate worsened from 179.7 last Thursday to 206.45 new cases per 100,000 people.
The only other indicator Mercer County met this week was percentage of non-congregate cases, which fell to 89% from last week’s 100%.
Allen County hit three indicators this week and will continue under a Level 2, or orange, emergency as new cases per capita, non-congregate cases and outpatient visits for COVID-like illnesses remain an issue.
Van Wert, Hardin and Logan counties improved from orange to yellow this week, while Auglaize, Hancock and Shelby counties remain under orange alerts.
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