Lorain County Updates

Lorain County’s weekly COVID-19 caseload continues to decrease. From Feb. 26 to March 4, the county reported 209 cases and 11 hospitalizations. These numbers follow 234 cases last week, and multiple weeks of decreasing caseloads.

The county has received 26,025 vaccine doses in total, and, as of March 4, has administered 17,114 first vaccine doses and 7,362 second doses. 

Lorain County remains classified by the Ohio Health Department at “Red Alert 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 and lower community spread outside of congregate settings.

Statewide Updates

ODH reported 8,359 new statewide COVID-19 cases in the last week.

This week, Governor Mike DeWine announced that when Ohio reaches 50 cases per 100,000 people for a two-week period, he will lift all COVID-19 related health orders. As of Wednesday, Ohio has been at 179 cases per 100,000 people for the last two weeks, a drop from 731 as of Dec. 3. Currently only one county in Ohio has met DeWine’s benchmark. 

As of March 4, 15.4 percent of Ohio residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Ohio moved to expand vaccine access to groups in Phases 1C this week. 1C includes pregnant women, type 1 diabetics, law enforcement and corrections officers, and a few other vulnerable groups are now eligible for the vaccine in addition to healthcare workers, teachers, people with select pre-existing conditions, and those over the age of 65. DeWine also announced that he would begin Phase 2 of the vaccination process, which includes all Ohioans 60 and older. 

The expansion of vaccine eligibility comes after Ohio learned that it would receive 100,000 doses of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine this week. Combined with other vaccines, Ohio received 448,390 doses this week, the largest shipment to date. Because the Johnson & Johnson vaccine can be kept at normal refrigeration temperatures, 200 independent pharmacies will get their first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines this week, which will help with distribution in rural areas of the state. 

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 cases out of 651 tests administered. This is the second week in a row of zero positive cases for Oberlin College.