Franklin County (location of Columbus, OH) at "severe" COVID risk
Ohio has been using a color-coded system sine June to designate the severity of covid outbreak (4 tiers, ranging from yellow-orange-red-purple). Franklin County (including Columbus) just hit "purple" or "severe" outbreak status today - first ever in the state. Per the Ohio Dept Health, "people should only leave their home for supplies and services."
Link#2: https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/public-health-advisory-system
If I play for IU, or have a loved one as part of their program, I'm not sure now is a good time to go to Columbus. I'm sure the governor will make an exception for OSU sporting teams - he has already given them a few loopholes already.
November 19th, 2020 at 5:41 PM ^
Double post. Truly the gods have forsaken me!
November 19th, 2020 at 5:55 PM ^
We can only hope...
November 19th, 2020 at 6:24 PM ^
I've never really seen a ton of value in county-by-county tier levels.
(1) There are often significant testing differences between counties. This is truly a case where "numbers are up just because testing is up" is a legit argument.
(2) Dozens of cars cross the Franklin County line every single minute. The Columbus Metro Region is a more meaningful geographical construct for CoronaVirus cases than singling out Franklin County itself.
(3) Franklin County is the "medical hub" for a wide region of Ohio, that extends from Mansfield to Lima to Springfield to Portsmouth to Athens to Zanesville. Considering the number of tests that are done in a medical center, that inherently leads to a bias of Franklin County having higher per capita case numbers. Ditto for any other "medical hub" county - Hamilton County, Cuyahoga County, Kent County MI, etc.
November 19th, 2020 at 6:52 PM ^
I believe the positive cases are attributed to where the patient lives, not where the test was performed. And although you're right when it comes to complex surgeries or cancer treatments, people aren't driving from Lima, OH to Wexner Medical Center (OSU university hospital) for a COVID test. I would argue the vast majority of people are tested in their home county.
November 19th, 2020 at 7:16 PM ^
No family members will be permitted to attend the OSU/Indiana game this weekend. Franklin County issued a 21 day stay at home advisory, through 12/18. This forced this weekends football finals to be relocated from Columbus to Massillon, Columbus City School's have shut down all winter sports with no games or practices allowed. Many other schools have shut down competition, but will allow teams to practice.
November 19th, 2020 at 8:06 PM ^
Meanwhile, California is setting records for daily cases. But on a per capita basis, California has the sixth lowest new case rate. That makes me wonder what the rest of the country looks like.
On a personal level, a good friend of the family died from covid recently. 71 year old from Haslett. Stay safe, MGoFriends.
November 19th, 2020 at 8:16 PM ^
I'm sorry about your friend.
November 20th, 2020 at 10:39 AM ^
Despite most of our population being very densely, er, populated, California has done extremely well with COVID, relative to almost everywhere else in the country. Hopefully that continues and my kids can go back to school someday.
November 19th, 2020 at 9:10 PM ^
I'm probably toeing the 'no politics' line, but I'm in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) and we'll probably be purple soon too. You Michigan residents are lucky to have a governor who is willing to disregard public opinion and her own political future to fight hard to control the pandemic. Ours isn't quite as brave, but he's trying.
November 19th, 2020 at 9:40 PM ^
Last I saw nearly 70% of Michiganders supported Whitmer's handling of CV.
November 19th, 2020 at 10:05 PM ^
No family members are allowed at the game this Saturday in Columbus. Not even cut-outs are allowed for this one.
November 19th, 2020 at 11:56 PM ^
Shocking that the most populous county in the state would also have the worst COVID numbers.
November 20th, 2020 at 6:16 AM ^
If you look at the metrics used to determine the county risk levels (defined on the Ohio Public Health Advisory site), they are about the rates of change and percentages of relevant factors (cases, hospitalizations, etc.) It doesn't matter if the county is high/low population since the numbers are normalized.