8 COVID-19 patients in Firelands

SANDUSKY — The Erie County Health Department's new weekly update on COVID-19, issued Tuesday, showed eight COVID-19-positive patients being treated at Firelands Regional Medical Center, down from 12 the previous week. The health department reported one new COVID-19 death Tuesday, bringing the total for Erie County up to 360. The health department reported 272 new cases Tuesday, versus 226 new cases reported the week before. The Erie County Health Department discontinued its weekly press releases on COVID-19 for several months but resumed them last week after the CDC began classifying Erie County as having a high community level of COVID-19. Much of Ohio was listed Tuesday as having high community levels on the CDC's county by county map, including Erie, Huron, Sandusky and Ottawa counties. Huron County Public Health's weekly COVID-19 report, issued Friday, showed a case count of 157 cases, down from 190 the week before. It noted, however, a general trend of increasing cases in the U.S. and in Ohio. Ohio's COVID-19 dashboard showed 1,281 people hospitalized statewide with COVID-19 on Aug. 4, a number that has been fairly steady for about two weeks. Hospitalizations are considered a more reliable way to track coronavirus trends than cases, as many people use home testing kits whose results aren't reported to local health agencies. COVID-19 remains a deadly threat for many Americans; as of August 8, the CDC was reporting an average of 382 deaths a day. Still, that number is well below the average of about 2,700 deaths a day in early February. The CDC reports 1,029,185 deaths in the U.S. so far.