“We Have A Shockingly High Number Of Cases”

Hancock and Putnam Counties again stayed at their previous levels as the new COVID-19 alert map was released on Thursday.

Hancock County remained at level 2, or the orange level, while Putnam County is still at level 3, or the red level.

Hancock, Putnam, and all 88 counties in Ohio are now labeled as “high incidence” counties.

56 counties are now categorized as “red”, the highest number since the map was created.

Henry County and Sandusky County are among the newly red counties.

Hancock Public Health says there have been a total of 1,377 cases as of Wednesday, along with 31 deaths.

192 of the cases are active.

State data shows Putnam County has had 1,562 cases and 30 deaths and has the highest COVID rate in the state based on population.

On Thursday, a new single-day record of 4,961 new cases were reported statewide along with 33 deaths.

There have now been 235,170 cases and 5,461 deaths in Ohio.

“We have a shockingly high number of cases in the past 24 hours,” Governor DeWine said Thursday.

“As of today, every single county in the state of Ohio is high incidence. COVID-19 is everywhere. We can’t hide from it, we have to face it.”