News
Athens County Confirms 7 New Cases For March 2, Death Totals Adjusted
By: Aaron Payne
Posted on:
ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — Athens County has now had 47 total deaths related to COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic after 14 were added to the total Tuesday. The county also has now had 4,644 total cases of COVID-19 after seven new cases were reported the same day.
The Ohio Department of Health confirmed the death and new cases on March 2, 2021.
Analysis of ODH data indicates the deaths involved eight people aged 80 or older, 3 people in their 70s, two people in their 50s and one person in their 60s.
Death totals around the state have been adjusted after ODH announced it changed how it was gathering the data. There was no immediate explanation for the sudden jump in Athens County’s data.
Among the changers are:
-Deaths will no longer be reported as probable or confirmed. All deaths will be verified with a death certificate. Deaths will be listed as “Deaths in State of Ohio” and “Ohio Resident Deaths”.
-Mortality data will no longer be reported daily.
-Mortality data may lag between one to two months up to 6 months.
Regarding the new cases, three involved people aged 20-29, one involved a person aged 0-19, one involved a person aged 30-39, one involved a person aged 40-49 and one involved a person aged 50-59.
There are 302 known active cases in the county as of Tuesday and 4,295 recovered cases, according to the local health department.
The department is scheduling COVID-19 vaccine appointments for Phase 1A, Phase 1B, Phase 1C and Phase 2 for COVID-19 vaccine.
People 60 years of age and older, pregnant women, people with type 1 diabetes, bone marrow transplant recipients and people with ALS are eligible for the vaccine starting Thursday.
Occupations now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine are childcare workers, firefighters, law enforcement, corrections, and funeral services.
The department is continuing to experience internet and phone system outages.
For this week only, call 740-592-0899 to schedule a vaccine appointment for this Friday.
Just more than 13.6% of the county has started the vaccination process, according to ODH.
Anyone experiencing respiratory symptoms is asked to call their primary care physician, urgent care, or emergency department before arriving for care to let them know that they believe they are experiencing symptoms related to COVID-19 virus.
Tuesday at 2 p.m., the Ohio Department of Health announced 970,583 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 statewide after 1,709 cases were reported in the last 24 hours. There have been 50,503 hospitalizations and reported deaths fell to 16,750 after the change in reporting death data.
ODH makes the following recommendations to protect yourself from illness:
- Wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds; dry hands with a clean towel or air dry hands.
- Use alcohol-based hand sanitizer when soap and water are unavailable.
- Cover your mouth with a tissue or sleeve when sneezing or coughing. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.
- Stay home when you are sick.
- Avoid contact with people who are sick.
Ohio’s coronavirus call center is open to answer questions from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. The hotline number is 1-833-4-ASK-ODH or 1-833-427-5634. More information is available at coronavirus.ohio.gov.
