MIAMI COUNTY — Miami County health officials are urging people to follow health guidelines after the county landed on a watch for Level 4, “purple,” on Ohio’s Public Health Advisory System.
The color-coded map system, in place since this summer, relies on what state leaders refer to as ‘early warning’ indicators – COVID-19 metrics on the rise that might indicate the COVID situation in that county is deteriorating.
“We’ve seen a rise in a lot of our outpatient visits, and our new cases have been increasing the last couple weeks,” Miami County health commissioner Dennis Propes said Thursday.
Propes said he was somewhat surprised to see the county placed on a watch for Level 4, because he and other health officials have been pleasantly surprised at the smaller-than-expected spike in cases tied to Thanksgiving.
However, Propes said informal gatherings remain a danger point when it comes to the spread of the virus in Miami County.
“What we’re seeing anecdotally particularly is when someone goes over to a family member’s house, a friend’s house, they feel safe and comfortable so they don’t wear that mask, don’t socially distance as best they can,” he said.
On Ohio’s Public Health Advisory system, when a county – like Miami is now – is placed on the “watch” for purple, it means the county actually meets enough COVID-19 indicators to qualify for purple – but the county gets a grace period to try to reverse some of the trends.
Currently, far fewer Ohio counties are purple on the map compared to a few weeks ago. Governor Mike DeWine Thursday said that has less to do with the situation improving dramatically in Ohio, and more to do with cases plateauing a bit – but plateauing at exceedingly high levels.
In Miami County, Propes said Public Health would discuss whether more measures or advisories would be necessary if the county does reach purple next week – but did encourage citizens there to take steps to stop the spread of COVID-19…with the promising news of the virus providing reason for optimism in the future.
“With the vaccine here, there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “It might be a few more months, but we will get there, we will get back to normal here, sooner rather than later.”
Cox Media Group
