Columbiana County nursing homes and assisted-living facilities remain a hot spot for the coronavirus this week with four facilities showing the same number of cases now that they had last week.

Only one saw a change: The Salem North nursing home had six patients and four staff cases last week but has none of either type this week. All four facilities with at least three cases are in northern Columbiana County.

In Trumbull County, meanwhile, no facility has at least three cases. The county has only three cases anywhere — two at one facility and one at another.

Mahoning County has only one facility with three or more cases and a total of nine cases at all facilities.

DEATHS

Area nursing homes reported nine additional deaths this week, however.

Mahoning County reported an increase of five nursing home deaths — to 184.

Trumbull County saw an increase of one nursing home death — to 73.

Columbiana County saw an increase of three nursing home deaths — to 40 this week.

The Mahoning County Public Health website says the county has had 208 deaths involving people at long-term care facilities. Overall, the county has recorded 274 deaths, meaning 75.9 percent of the county’s deaths have involved people at facilities such as nursing homes.

Tracy Styka, spokesperson for Mahoning County Public Health, said she does not know when any of the five newly reported nursing home deaths occurred.

“The five deaths were not necessarily in the past week,” she said. “They could have happened at any time. They just got reported last week.”

Laura Fauss, public information officer for the Columbiana County Health District, reported Monday the county saw 10 new cases of the virus since Sept. 4, nine of those being residents at long-term care facilities.

She also reported the county had two deaths since Sept. 4 — both of them at long-term care facilities such as nursing homes. One was a man, 68, and the other was a woman, 82.

Mahoning County continues to have the fourth-highest number of nursing home deaths in the state, and Trumbull has the eighth-most. Columbiana County has the 14th-most nursing home deaths.

As a state, the number of patient cases this week in Ohio nursing homes and assisted-living facilities fell from 836 to 694. Staff cases dropped from 570 to 448.

erunyan@tribtoday.com