Prior to the last two weeks, Clark County had seen a steady week-over-week drop in COVID-19 cases, beginning in late December.
“We were hoping that we would continue to get less and less cases; that has not been the case,” Clark County Combined Health District Commissioner Charles Patterson said. “Unfortunately, with the nicer weather it appears that people are starting to let their guard down a little bit.
Patterson said he’s “thrilled” the county is no longer recording 100 confirmed cases a day, but “100 a week is still too many.”
“The hospital called twice this week to report deaths of people who had been long-term COVID patients who eventually did pass away,” Patterson said. “So we are still losing our citizens to this disease and we need to shut it down. We need to continue to mask and social distance just a little longer.”
Patterson said the urge to want to gather again with family and friends should encourage everyone to become vaccinated. As of Friday, Clark County had given 29,508 total COVID-19 vaccinations, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
That means about 22.01% the county’s total population has received at least one shot. Nearly 14% of the county’s population has been fully vaccinated.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Gov. Mike DeWine said Friday morning the state is “on track” to open eligibility for the coronavirus vaccines to all adults by May 1. It comes after President Joe Biden announced Thursday night that he will instruct states to make all adults eligible for the vaccine by that date.
“We’re going to move forward, make it available as quickly as we can,” DeWine said. “We opened up to people 50 years of age and older (Thursday) and what we’re seeing is very quick filling up of the slots. So you know, those are gonna be really full for the next week or so. Then I would suspect they’ll start loosening up some.”
He said the state will likely continue expanding eligibility for the vaccine by age group or health condition before every adult becomes eligible.
Clark County had 12,506 cases of the coronavirus as of Friday and 266 total deaths, according to data from ODH.
Daily cases of coronavirus remained under 2,000 Friday as the state reported 209 deaths, according to ODH.
Since changing systems to report COVID deaths, the state is only updating that data once a week on Fridays. As of Friday, 18,036 total deaths have been reported in the state.
Friday marked the ninth-straight day Ohio reported fewer than 2,000 daily cases of the virus. Ohio recorded 1,806 daily cases, bringing its total to 986,740.
Facts & Figures:
100: COVID-19 cases confirmed in Clark County between March 5 and Friday
95: COVID-19 cases confirmed in Clark County last week
65: COVID-19 cases confirmed in Clark County the week prior
Source: Clark County Combined Health District
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