Vaccinating residents of long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and assisted-living facilities is working in the Mahoning Valley and Ohio, Dr. James Kravec, chief clinical officer for Mercy Health Youngstown and medical director for Mahoning County Public Health, said.

The number of Mahoning Valley nursing homes and other long-term care facilities with current COVID-19 cases has now dropped to four, all of them in Mahoning County, according to the latest numbers from the Ohio Department of Health. Numbers across the state similarly have dropped.

Facilities in Trumbull and Columbiana counties report only three cases of the virus each. Kravec said vaccinations among that population are also the reason for large drops in nursing home cases statewide in each of the last six weeks.

“What we are seeing with the reduction in COVID-19 residents and employees in nursing homes is 100 percent aligned to the vaccination effort the state is doing,” he said.

“Vaccines work. People are not dying because they are not contracting COVID because of the vaccine in the nursing homes. This is a show of success,” he said.

“After the person receives the vaccine, some level of immunity starts immediately,” he said. “There is even better immunity after the second dose.”

He said he would expect similar trends as other groups are vaccinated, but added, “The general public is vast, and it’s going to take months and months to achieve that.”

He said as mutations occur in the virus, however, it may take a booster shot to continue to knock out the virus.

There were 1,176 patient cases this week statewide, down from, 1,501 patient cases last week. Staff cases were 852 this week, down from 1,128 last week.

A big decline in staff cases was reported at the private Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown this week, dropping from 19 to nine. Inmate cases remained at two.

The number of staff cases at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown dropped from seven last week to six this week. Inmate cases remained at zero.

The number of staff cases of the virus at Trumbull Correctional Institution in Leavittsburg remained at two, and inmate cases remained at zero.

The Ohio Department of Health reported three additional deaths involving long-term care facilities in Trumbull County this week and one from Mahoning County. There were no new deaths involving Columbiana County facilities.

Mahoning County’s nursing home death total is 215, Trumbull’s total is 159, and Columbiana County’s is 68.

By the numbers

Only facilities with three or more cases are listed. The “total” cases listed below are the total number the facility has had since April 15.

Mahoning County

¯ Austinwoods nursing home, Austintown – 0 patient cases, 3 staff cases; total of 42 patient cases, 36 staff cases.

¯ Humility House nursing home, Austintown – 5 patient cases, 2 staff cases, total of 50 patient cases, 49 staff cases.

¯ Ivy Woods nursing home, North Lima – 2 patient cases, 2 staff cases; total of 9 patient cases, 2 staff cases.

¯ Woodlands Center for Rehab nursing home, Poland – 3 patient cases, 0 staff cases, total of 3 patient cases, 0 staff cases.

SOURCE: Ohio Department of Health