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With the number of COVID-19 cases at a six-month peak, the five health districts in the Mahoning Valley issued a joint statement for the first time during the pandemic urging school systems to require all students and staff to wear face masks.
The Mahoning County, Trumbull County, Youngstown, Warren and Columbiana County health districts wrote in the Friday statement that they "strongly recommend schools follow (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidance and adopt universal masking policies for all students, teacher and staff regardless of their vaccination status."
They added: "Moreover, we are urging all parents to send their children to school properly wearing a face mask, covering the nose and the mouth, especially in situations where a school district has not adopted a universal mask policy. This will prevent your child from disruptions from in-person class or sports when a positive COVID-19 case occurs."
The statement came a day after state Rep. Mike Loychik, R-Bazetta, said he plans soon to introduce legislation to prohibit schools in the state from mandating students wear masks. The proposal, he said, wouldn't prohibit faculty, staff and visitors from wearing masks or from the school imposing a mandate on them.
Loychik said the decision on masks "should remain optional and up to the discretion of parents on whether their child needs to wear a mask" and "not a mandate from schools."
State Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown, said of Loychik: "Maybe he needs to sit through a seventh-grade science class again. We need to protect our children."
The Lakeview, Girard and Warren school districts will require face masks for all while indoors when classes start.
The five health districts wrote: "It is proven that masking reduces transmission of the virus which causes COVID-19 and it also protects those who are not vaccinated. Because a significant portion of the student population is not yet eligible to be vaccinated and as a state only half of our population is vaccinated, universal masking will add another layer of protection to keep our children in school."
Because of a law passed by the state Legislature, the health districts wrote: "These are not orders, but are data-driven and science-based recommendations. The final decisions regarding masking is made by the governing body of each (school) district."
HIGH CASE NUMBER
Ohio should end this week with more new COVID-19 cases reported than it's had in six months.
The state had 14,405 new COVID-19 cases reported for the first six days of the week.
Only 595 additional cases today would leave this week with one more than the 14,999 reported during the week of Feb. 14 to 20. The state hasn't had a day with fewer than 595 cases since July 18.
That would mean the most weekly cases since 19,462 were reported during the week of Feb. 7 to 13.
Also, more COVID-19 cases were reported in the past six days than all of the cases between June 6 and July 10, which total 12,174.
On Friday, 2,732 new COVID-19 cases were reported. The state exceeded 3,200 cases Wednesday and Thursday.
Also, Ohio has exceeded 1,000 daily COVID-19 cases during the past 11 straight days, including six that had more than 2,000 cases and the two with more than 3,000 reported cases.
COVID-19 case numbers in Ohio have increased by nearly eight times the amount from four weeks ago as the state is going through its worst stretch in more than six months.
The delta variant among the unvaccinated, which spreads quickly, is almost entirely to blame for the increase, said Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Ohio Department of Health's chief medical officer.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list 66 counties, including Columbiana, as high COVID-19 transmission areas and another 20, including Mahoning and Trumbull, as substantial transmission counties. Only two counties in the state are listed by the CDC as moderate risk areas.
The 2,732 new COVID-19 cases reported Friday is up from the daily average of 1,638 for the past 21 days, according to the ODH.
Of those new cases Friday, 118 total were in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.
Ohio was averaging about 260 cases per day about five weeks ago.
The state had a total of 1,155,322 COVID-19 cases as of Friday with 1,099,395 presumed recovered and 20,614 deaths.
The ODH usually provides death information on Tuesdays and Fridays.
There were 34 additional COVID-19 deaths since Tuesday.
VACCINATIONS
There were 5,899,883 people, 50.47 percent of the state's population, who had at least started getting inoculated as of 6 a.m. Friday, including 16,838 in the previous 24 hours, according to the ODH.
It's the most people in the state to at least start the vaccination process since May 25 with 18,447, according to ODH statistics.
In Mahoning County, 48.88 percent of the population (111,787 people) had received at least one dose with 46.69 percent of the population in Trumbull County (92,433 people) and 39.49 percent in Columbiana County (40,229 people) as of 6 a.m. Friday, according to the ODH.
There were 5,463,406 people, 46.74 percent of the state's population,who finished the vaccinations as of 6 a.m. Friday, including 10,582 in the prior 24 hours.
In Mahoning County, 45.21 percent of the population (103,337 people) had completed the process and 42.84 percent of the population in Trumbull (84,813 people) and 36.63 percent of the population in Columbiana (37,316 people) had as of 6 a.m. Friday.
COVID-19 by the numbers
The number of cases, changes in cases and deaths in counties in the region and statewide as of Friday:
County Cases Change since Change since Deaths
yesterday last week
Trumbull 17,246 +34 +235 493
Mahoning 23,223 +53 +267 615
Columbiana 9,465 +31 +124 236
Ohio 1,155,322 +2,73 +16,722 20,614
SOURCE: Ohio Department of Health