County sees over 100 COVID deaths; school district reporting to change | News

105 Hocking County residents have died from COVID since January 2020, according to the ODH. The first death occurred in April 2020; four deaths occurred on Christmas Day, 2021, the highest amount in one day thus far. The Logan Daily News last reported four weeks ago that the county had 95 deaths.

According to the Hocking County Health Department, all deaths have to be confirmed on a death certificate as COVID-related before reporting to the public. 34 deaths have occurred since Aug. 1, 2021, the health department reported Jan. 27.

The county has 446 active cases of COVID as of Jan. 27, a health department Facebook post stated. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of Thursday the county had a 17.11% positivity rate and five new hospital admissions (within the past seven days).

According to the ODH, the county has seen a preliminary total of 6,069 positive cases (as of Jan. 27) and 4,969 presumed recovered cases. There have been 283 hospitalizations, excluding 51 where admission date is unknown.

According to the New York Times, per U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data, Hocking Valley Community Hospital has seven COVID patients and an 86% intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy rate. Ohio as a whole is seeing an 83% ICU occupancy rate. Fairfield Medical Center in Lancaster has 25 COVID patients, three available ICU beds and a 94% ICU occupancy rate.

Nearly 15% of the Logan-Hocking School District’s (LHSD) estimated 4,000 students have had COVID – 591 cumulative positive student cases for the 2021-2022 have been reported, according to the school district’s COVID dashboard. There have been 120 confirmed cases in LHSD staff, according to Friday’s dashboard.

The LHSD dashboard now only shows weekly results and cumulative cases (in students and staff); it no longer lists quarantine numbers and numbers by building, such as elementary, middle and high.

LHSD Supt. Monte Bainter told The Logan Daily News Thursday that these changes are due to new ODH guidelines. On Wednesday the ODH announced new contact tracing and case investigation guidance for K-12 schools: a shift from universal contact tracing, case investigation and exposure notification to an outbreak-based model. According to a press release, schools should continue to follow the “Mask to Stay, Test to Play,” model. Schools will only report weekly case counts by end of business day on Fridays, beginning Feb. 4.

“We did away with the building numbers… because, once again, the contact tracing and the quarantines – it became very complicated,” Bainter said. “We still reported positive cases. We’ll still report positive cases – only by week, (as a) district.”

Students have been able to attend classes in-person more often than earlier in the pandemic – when they had to quarantine for 10–day periods – he confirmed, due to new guidelines such as “Mask to Stay.”