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LISBON -- Despite rising coronavirus numbers the past two weeks, Columbiana County remains at level two orange, and Health Commissioner Wes Vins said the local hospitals are not in danger of having capacity issues.
Since Friday, Oct. 23, the county has had an increase of 108 COVID-19 cases, with two of them residents of long-term care facilities. The remaining 106 were people in the general community and brought the total number of cases to 2,244 since the beginning of the pandemic.
At this point, 1,075 have been members of the general community and 210 are long-term care facility residents. The remaining 959 were inmates from the federal prison with no new cases there in some time.
The County Health Department also released the numbers of cases by zip code for the month of October through Friday. Of the 281 new cases, the Salem area has had the most with 102, followed by East Liverpool with 33 new cases, Columbiana with 23, Lisbon with 22, Beloit with 15 and both Leetonia and Salineville with 10. Other communities with new cases were New Waterford with nine; East Palestine and Minerva with eight; Alliance and East Rochester with six; and Homeworth, Negley, Rogers and Wellsville each with five. Hanoverton had three, while Kensington, Sebring and Winona each had one.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Lisbon still leads the way with 1,055, however, when the cases from FCI-Elkton and any other long-term care facility are subtracted there have been 96 cases in the area of the village zip code. Salem has had 446 cases with 292 of them cases from the general community.
East Liverpool has seen 196 total cases with 188 from the general community. Columbiana case totals are at 158 with 111 from the general community.
While some of the newest outbreaks are impacting schools, Vins said he wants to emphasize the schools are doing an excellent job. The cases are being connected to events in the community, where friends or family may not feel the need to wear a mask or socially distance and someone may have attended the event with symptoms. Such events can include weddings, funerals and backyard cookouts.
However, when a student is listed as a case or potential case, the school where the student attends have protocols in place and are ready to jump into action when notified of the positive. Vins said he spoke to five superintendents over the weekend and three of them were already on their way to the school during the phone call to begin the process of determining who would be a close contact.
According to Vins, the schools are keeping lists and seating charts of where each child sits on the bus, in the classroom and at lunch. The school can quickly determine who are the close contacts of the student so the parents can be alerted. By placing those contacts in quarantine, Vins said the schools are doing a fantastic job of keeping the virus from spreading further.
Symptoms of coronavirus include a cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fever, chills, muscle pain, a sore throat and a new loss of taste or smell. Even someone who believes they may have a cold, sinus infection or allergies should consider it could be coronavirus when making a decision about going around others.
Additionally, the health department continues to urge people to get a flu shot, which also has similar symptoms to coronavirus. A flu clinic is being offered at the Salem Regional Medical Center Primary Care in Damascus from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sunday. Call 330-446-4096 to pre-register, which is required. The cost is $22 for the standard vaccine and $52 for the high-dose seniors vaccine. Insurance can be billed or patients can pay out of pocket.
With both Halloween and Election Day both over the next week, Vins said he wants to urge those participating to continue washing hands, wearing masks and socially distancing.
"Don't be tricked by COVID, follow the simple protocols," Vins said.
He points out the Board of Elections and voters who have been utilizing early voting are all doing their parts to make voting as safe as possible. Repeating a message he heard from Secretary of State Frank LaRose earlier this week, Vins said those who feel safe going grocery shopping should also feel safe at the polls. He suggests anyone with concerns or in quarantine should consider utilizing the curbside option, where two poll workers, one from each party, can come to the vehicle so the voter does not need to get out of the car.
Cases across the state of Ohio have reached 212,782 on Friday with the addition of 3,845 cases in the last 24 hours. There have been 5,291 deaths and 18,969 hospitalizations with 169 new hospitalizations in the past 24 hours.