Deaths from COVID-19 increase in Ashtabula County
Feb. 27—BY BRIAN HAYTCHER
The Ashtabula County COVID-19 situation summary, released on Tuesday by the Ashtabula County Health Department, showed an increase of 21 deaths over the same time last week.
A total of 147 county residents have died due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to the county Health Department. Of those deaths, 105 were from the Ashtabula County Health Department's jurisdiction, 25 were from Conneaut, and 26 were from Ashtabula.
A total of 5,921 cumulative positive tests have been reported in Ashtabula County. The Ashtabula County Health Department reports a total of 176 people in the county currently have COVID-19.
The vast majority of the active cases are in the county's jurisdiction, with 125 current cases, according to the Health Department.
Seven people county-wide are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, and a total of 468 have been hospitalized since the start of the pandemic.
The county's positivity rate for COVID-19 was 8.9 percent for the week of Feb. 16 to 23, with 58 of 649 tests coming back positive, according to the Ashtabula County Health Department.
A total of 10,152 people in Ashtabula County had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 5,404 people had received their second dose as of Tuesday, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
Ashtabula County's vaccination rate for both first and second shots lag behind the rest of the state. For first shots, the county is just over two percent below the state average, at 10.4 percent of the population receiving the first dose, and for the second shot, the county is about .5 percent below the state average, at 5.5 percent, according to ODH.
As of Tuesday, people 65 and older, school teachers and staff and people with certain childhood conditions that have continued into adulthood that make them vulnerable to COVID-19 are eligible for the vaccine.
