Columbus, Franklin County public health agencies issue indoor mask advisories as cases rise

Equally cases of COVID-19 continue to increment in Franklin County and across the state, Columbus and Franklin Canton public health agencies issued indoor mask advisories Friday, urging residents to clothing masks indoors and in crowded places.

Columbus Public Health said in a news release that it enacted the advisory considering Franklin Canton is at present listed equally a high level of manual on the Centers for Affliction Command and  Prevention's latest COVID-19 data tracker.

Even so, information technology is not a mask mandate, which Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther dropped in March.

"Protecting ourselves and our community from COVID-xix takes a multi-layered approach" Columbus Health Commissioner Dr. Mysheika Roberts said in the release.

"The best way to protect yourself and your loved ones from hospitalization and death from COVID-19 is to get vaccinated and boosted. Wearing a mask and testing if you lot're sick also will help deadening downwardly the spread," Roberts said.

Considering Worthington is covered by Columbus Public Health, the mask advisory is also in identify for that city.

"They (Columbus Public Health) have been very helpful to usa throughout this pandemic in providing guidance and data and information about what steps are best to take to help our community, and so nosotros are following their advice," said Anne Brown, director of communications.

Columbus Public Health's approach was echoed in an advisory statement issued by Franklin County Public Wellness.

"Cases and hospitalizations in Franklin Canton are spiking because of the highly-contagious Omicron BA.five variant," the canton health bureau said in a release. "Because Franklin County is at the highest community level (on the CDC map), it is important that everyone takes precautions."

The agency recommends staying dwelling house if yous test positive and contacting your healthcare provider to enquire if you should have an antiviral. Additional precautions may be needed for people at high gamble for severe affliction.

For employers, Franklin County Public Health suggests requiring masks in places of business, encouraging staff not feeling well to stay home, and ordering a small business organisation resource kit. The kits can exist establish at vax2normal.org/resource-for-businesses/.

The CDC community transmission level for Franklin Canton is high based on the countywide case rate and hospital metrics.

The example charge per unit in Franklin County is at present 214 per 100,000, co-ordinate to the Columbus Public Health release. New hospital admissions were 10.7 per 100,000 with 3.7% of patients in staffed inpatient beds confirmed with COVID-19.

Every bit of Monday, the positivity rate in Franklin County was 19.viii%.

Other central Ohio counties that are seeing high customs levels of transmission include Marion, Pickaway and Union counties. Community levels remain at a medium level for Delaware, Fairfield, Licking and Madison counties.

Other major cities in the land that are seeing loftier transmission levels include Dayton and Cincinnati. Levels in the Cleveland, Akron and Toledo areas are at medium.

The news of the advisory comes every bit 26,610 COVID-19 cases were reported in Ohio in the past calendar week. In contrast, the land was seeing simply thousands of cases in tardily March and hovered higher up 10,000 in the beginning of May. Those numbers are about likely to exist higher due to at-home tests not being recorded.

Well-nigh half of all new reported COVID-19 cases in Ohio in contempo weeks came from the BA.5 variant, co-ordinate to state health section data, as the U.Southward. enters another wave of the pandemic.

The CDC has a number of recommendations that are triggered by an upgrade to high level of transmission. They include:

• Wear a well-fitting mask indoors in public, regardless of vaccination status (including in Chiliad-12 schools and other indoor community settings).
• If you are immunocompromised or high adventure for severe disease: Wear a mask or respirator that provides you with greater protection; consider fugitive non-essential indoor activities in public where you could exist exposed; talk to your healthcare provider nigh whether y'all need to have other precautions; take a plan for rapid testing if needed; talk to your healthcare provider virtually whether you are a candidate for treatments like oral antivirals, PrEP, and monoclonal antibodies.
• If y'all have household or social contact with someone at high risk for severe disease: Consider self-testing to detect infection before contact; consider wearing a mask when indoors with them.
• Stay up to date with COVID-nineteen vaccines and boosters.
• Maintain improved ventilation throughout indoor spaces when possible.
• Follow CDC recommendations for isolation and quarantine, including getting tested if you are exposed to COVID-19 or have symptoms of COVID-19.

More:New BA.5 variant now almost half, if not more, of new COVID-xix cases in Ohio

More:How to get a COVID-nineteen vaccine for children under 5 in the Columbus surface area

Micah Walker is the Dispatch trending reporter. Reach her at mwalker@dispatch.com or 740-251-7199. Follow her on Twitter @micah_walker701

Reporter Tom Hanks contributed to this story.

Source: https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2022/07/22/columbus-public-health-issues-mask-advisory-due-high-covid-levels/10126344002/

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