Lorain County Updates

COVID-19 cases for Lorain County have continued to trend downward this week. From Feb. 18 to Feb. 25 the county had 234 cases, five hospitalizations, and zero deaths. This is significantly lower than last week’s 383 cases and comes after multiple weeks of decreasing caseloads.

The county has received 18,805 vaccine doses in total, and, as of Friday, Feb. 26, has administered 10,994 first vaccine doses. 

Lorain County remains classified by the Ohio Health Department at “Level 3 Public Emergency”  out of a public emergency scale of four for “very high exposure and spread.” Level Three counties are advised to limit activities as much as possible. In order to move to a lower level, Lorain County must continue to lower per capita case levels, lower community spread outside of congregate settings, and decrease the number of emergency department visits by residents concerned about COVID-19. 

Statewide Updates

ODH reported 7,952 new statewide COVID-19 cases in the last week, 269 hospitalizations, and 33 deaths. 

As of Feb. 25, 13.10 percent of Ohio residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Ohio remains in the 1B vaccination level, and currently vaccinations are only available to health care workers, teachers, people age 65 and older, and people with severe health issues. Ohio plans to stay at this level for several more weeks before gradually lowering the age eligibility to 60 and 55.

In a COVID-19 update on Thursday, Governor Mike DeWine announced that sports and entertainment events are now allowed to take place. Indoor gatherings must be held at 25 percent capacity and outdoor gatherings must be held at 30 percent capacity, and attendees must follow COVID-19 safety precautions such as mask-wearing and physical distancing. 

DeWine also announced that Ohio is set to receive 310,000 first doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines next week. To meet this increased vaccine capacity, the state will add new vaccine provider sites at some Meijer and Walmart locations and at independent pharmacies, in addition to the preexisting vaccine distribution sites at some RiteAid, Kroger, CVS, Walgreens, and local health care facilities.

As the new Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine becomes available, Ohio expects to receive 91,000 doses within the first week. The FDA is expected to authorize the Johnson & Johnson vaccine this weekend, with shipments of doses going out as early as next week.

More information on COVID-19 in Ohio is available through the ODH and LCPH websites, where case numbers are updated every weekday at 2 p.m.

Oberlin College Updates

This week Oberlin College had zero new COVID-19 positive cases out of 502 tests administered. Despite the zero percent positivity rate, the ObieSafe team continues to remind the student body to be vigilant with wiping down shared spaces and answering contact tracing calls. 

The College also announced this week that it is not safe to invite back the class of 2020 this spring for an in-person commencement, as it previously planned to do. The College will hold some in-person events for the class of 2021 but will not invite family members to campus to celebrate.