There were 13 new coronavirus cases reported in Athens County last week as Ohio University started its Fall Semester.
There are 385 COVID-19 cases in the county as of Aug. 29, according to the Ohio Department of Health. There were no new hospitalizations or deaths reported, with those numbers staying at 21 and two, respectively.
Two of the cases were people under 20 years old. Six of the cases were people in their 20s. One person was in their 30s and another person was in their 40s. The last three individuals were in their 50s.
Athens is still a “yellow” county, which is the lowest level. The Ohio Department of Health determines what color a county is based off of how many indicators that county meets.
Ohio counties can change levels based off seven indicators:
- New cases per capita: This is flagged if more than 50 cases per 100,000 residents are reported. On Saturday, Athens County’s cases per 100,000 residents was 13.78.
- New cases increase: This is flagged if there is an increasing trend of cases in the last three weeks.
- Non-congregate cases: This is used as an indicator of community spread. Athens County has met this indicator. In the last three weeks, the non-congregate percentage was 100%.
- ED visits: This is flagged if the number of emergency department visits increases in five consecutive days in the last three weeks.
- Outpatient visits: This is flagged if the number of outpatient visits increases over a five day period within three weeks.
- Hospital admissions: This is flagged if hospital admissions increases over the last five days. Athens hasn’t seen a hospital visit since Aug. 16, according to the health department.
- ICU bed occupancy: This is flagged if the total ICU bed capacity is over 80% and 20% of those people are COVID-19 patients. As of August 25, ICU beds are at 56% capacity with 10.94% being COVID-19 patients.
