MOUNT GILEAD — At the July 6 commissioners’ meeting, Morrow County Emergency Management Director John Harsch noted a few more cases of COVID-19 were reported in the county by the health district the last couple of weeks.
After 14 days with no new cases from June 10 to June 24, one new case was reported to bring the total number of cases to 111 with 108 recovered and 55 cases associated with the Morrow County Correctional Facility.
Since the end of June, 10 more cases bring the total number to 121 in Morrow County as of July 8.
“It’s coming back,” said Harsch, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic that seemed to have disappeared in the county for a couple weeks.
“The good news is that last week the National Guard tested all the staff in Morrow County long-term care facilities (nursing homes) and no cases of COVID-19 were found.”
Commissioner Burgess Castle asked Harsch if there were more cases because of more testing. Harsch replied that testing doesn’t change the count when people have the disease.
Harsch added that it is good that the nursing care facilities in Morrow County have kept the disease out. He said he has given priority to making sure those facilities have plenty of the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as masks and hand sanitizer that was made available to him through the state.
Director of Nursing at the Morrow County Health District, Morgan Kocher, confirmed that there have been no new cases of COVID-19 at the long term care facilities.
“There were no positive cases found at all among staff in the-long term care facilities when they were tested by the National Guard,” Kocher said.
Kocher added that with the new cases of COVID-19 found in the county, it’s important for people to remain cautious and to follow CDC guidelines to prevent the spread.
Morrow County has been fortunate to have relatively few cases of COVID-19 compared with other Ohio counties.
The Morrow County Health District added a section to their Facebook page on “Red Alert Levels” in Ohio counties. The “Alert” levels were announced by Gov. Mike DeWine July 2.
Seven Ohio Counties are at the Red Alert Levels requiring wearing face coverings. They are: Butler, Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Huron, Montgomery and Trumbull Counties.
Ohio reported a record daily spike of 1,525 cases on Friday, July 10.
Frequent updates of COVID-19 statistics are available on the Morrow County Health District Facebook page and website: www.morrowcountyhealth.org. www.coronavirus.ohio.gov has information on its dashboard for all Ohio counties.
