CEDARVILLE, Ohio — The number of Ohioans living in very high alert "red" counties is the lowest it has been since the state instituted the Ohio Public Health Advisory System.
Only six counties are at red Level 3 (indicating "very high exposure and spread) on Thursday. In Northeast Ohio, Trumbull County joined three others across the state in dropping to "orange."
"The big story this week is that we have 76 counties at the same alert level, which is the smallest movement between levels we have experienced.” said Gov. Mike DeWine in his Thursday press briefing.
Only one county, moved up to the red level, Montgomery in southern Ohio. The other counties still at the red level are Erie, Lucas, Lorain, Mercer and Preble.
The top 14 counties ranked in the list of Counties Ranked By Highest Occurrence were rural this week, the governor said, continuing a trend that has been seen in Ohio in the last month. All of the top 10 counties have a population of under 60,000.
Mercer County, which had been home to the largest number of new cases in last two weeks has fallen to number two. Henry County in northwestern is now ranked as the county with the highest occurrence of COVID-19, with more than half of the newly diagnosed cases from a long term care facility.
Cuyahoga County remains at orange/"level 2 risk, with 76.8 cases per 100,000 people. DeWine cautioned that the return to school for students across the state may affect the county risk levels in coming weeks.
"We will be keeping a very close eye on all of our counties as college and university students return to class and as students go back to school," he said.
So far, no counties have risen to "purple" Level 4, indicating "severe exposure and spread."