YOUNGSTOWN — The number of nursing home COVID-19 cases in Mahoning County dropped from 33 to 17 this week after Mahoning County Public Health notified nursing homes and assisted living facilities to update their figures.

Meanwhile, the spike at White Oak Nursing Home in Warren is apparently over. The facility reported no current cases this week.

Last week, The Vindicator raised the issue with the health department of apparently incorrect data from Mahoning County facilities.

Officials at Mahoning County Public Health notified facilities that they should update their data and notify Mahoning County Public Health if their cases had dropped to zero.

Tracy Styka, community health education specialist, said that in situations where the same numbers appear for several weeks, those are most likely incorrect numbers and the facility has not notified the health department when its cases drop to zero.

She said a Mahoning health department official reminded Mahoning County nursing homes to notify the health department when its cases drop to zero. Mahoning County Public Health receives the data from local nursing homes and provides that data to the Ohio Department of Health, which posts the numbers on the ODH web site.

This week, the number of facilities reporting having any cases dropped from 20 to 14, but it appears likely that some facilities have still not updated their figures to reflect their number of cases dropping to zero.

In Trumbull County, the White Oak Manor nursing home on Ridge Avenue in Warren reported having eight patient cases last week and two staff cases, but it is reporting no cases this week.

When asked last week about the spike, a woman who answered the phone said the nursing home had no comment.

One Trumbull County facility — The Windsor House Liberty Health Care Center in Liberty Township — is reporting one current COVID-19 case among patients, the only case being reported among Trumbull County facilities. Liberty Health Care Center also had one case last week.

Columbiana County facilities are reporting no current cases.

Among all nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the state, there are 83 current nursing home cases, a drop from 94 last week. Among staff members, the number of active COVID-19 cases dropped this week to 85 from last week’s 128.

Both Mahoning and Trumbull counties reported one additional COVID-19 death this week, raising Mahoning County’s total to 280 and Trumbull’s total to 157. Columbiana County’s total remained at 79.

Among the two prisons in Youngstown and one in Leavittsburg, there are four staff cases of the virus being reported, all at the private Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown, and no inmate cases. The three facilities had a combined seven cases last week.