Here are the latest details on how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the area:
• Fulton County dropped to low in the COVID-19 Community Levels that were introduced recently by the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC does not recommend indoor mask wearing for most individuals in counties at low or medium.
Lucas, Williams, Henry, Defiance and Wood counties are also listed as low.
At the low level, CDC recommendations include staying up to date with COVID vaccines and getting tested if you have symptoms. At the medium level, it is recommended that those at high risk for severe illness talk to a healthcare provider about whether they need to wear a mask or take other precautions.
Most of the state’s 88 counties are at the low level and the ones that are not are concentrated in Southeast Ohio.
COVID-19 Community Levels are a tool to help communities decide what prevention steps to take based on the latest data. Levels can be low, medium, or high and are determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions, and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area.
County levels can be found at https://www.cdc.gov/.
• New cases of COVID-19 remained low in Fulton County last week. There were 16 new cases from March 4-11, according to the Fulton County Health Department.
There were 30 cases the previous week.
Fulton County’s case rate per 100,000 people dropped from 118.7 to 83.1 as of Thursday. That is the 38th highest in Ohio, which has an overall rate of 70.4 per capita.
Lucas County had one of the lower rates in the state at 46.7 out of 100,000, which was 79th out of 88 counties. Henry County is 72nd at 51.8 and Williams is 28th at 92.7. The highest in the state is Galia County at 314.4 cases per 100,000, while the lowest is Holmes County at 27.3.
The number of active cases in Fulton County fell from 27 to 16. It was 228 just over a month ago.
Last week, there was also 1 new hospitalization and 1 new death in the county.
• Fulton County now has had 10,299 overall reported cases as of Sunday according to the Ohio Department of Health. There have been 176 deaths reported in the county.
In Lucas County, there have been 99,339 total cases with 1,375 deaths, according to the health department.
• With new case numbers staying on the low side, case rates are now below 100 per 100,000 people in all Fulton County zip codes over the last two weeks.
The Wauseon zip code had the highest case rate in Fulton County over the last two weeks at 98.1 per 100,000 with a case count of 13.
Archbold’s zip code had a case rate of 75.7 and 5 cases over the last two weeks. The Swanton zip code’s case rate was 39.5 over the last two weeks, with 5 cases reported.
Over the last two weeks there were too few cases in Delta, Fayette, Metamora and Lyons for the state to report.
• COVID-19 vaccine is available Mondays at the Fulton County Health Department. The hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with the last two hours for kids 5-11 years old.
Appointments are preferred.
It is also available at the Rite Aid locations in Archbold, Swanton, and Wauseon, the Swanton Kroger, and Wauseon Walmart.
Share your information at [email protected].
