5 things to know about the coronavirus today: DeWine: ‘It is now serious’

It is Friday, Oct. 23, and these are five things to know about the coronavirus today.

Clark County in danger of moving to highest alert level

In a Thursday media briefing, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said that Clark County is one of three counties that are on a watch list for possibly moving to the highest level, level 4, of the state’s coronavirus warning system. DeWine said that each of the three counties qualified for level 4 but had to qualify for two weeks to be moved up. Since the alert system began Ohio has never had a county reach level 4.

More events canceled due to rise in cases

As Ohio continues to report record new cases of coronavirus, event organizers are canceling and citing the recent rise in cases. In Xenia, the Greene County Parks & Trails district announced that it would cancel its Light the Night Pumpkin Hike, which was originally scheduled to go on from Oct. 28-31 at Caesar Ford Park. In Lebanon, the chamber of commerce canceled the city’s traditional horse-drawn carriage parade, which had been scheduled to go on Dec. 5 with three shorter parades.

DeWine calls situation serious as Ohio breaks case record again

Ohio on Thursday again beat its record for daily coronavirus cases, leading Gov. Mike DeWine to say that the situation “is now serious.” He said, “For my fellow Ohioans who have felt that until now this virus really did not impact their life or their family and that they would react when it was really serious — I say to them that the time is now.”

Area bus driver shortage complicated by pandemic

Schools in the Dayton area and statewide have been experiencing bus driver shortages for years, and the pandemic is complicating the problem. In Fairborn, for example, the school district had several drivers test positive during the week of Oct. 12, and they all had additional drivers they had been in close contact with who needed to quarantine, making the district unable to drive students to school.

Coronavirus cases in schools on the rise

On Thursday, the Ohio Department of Health released its weekly report on the number of coronavirus cases involving K-12 students and school staff, showing a noticeably increase in cases. Last week schools reported 1,020 new cases. Since data collection began six weeks ago on Sept. 7, the cumulative total is only 3,826 cases, meaning the past week accounted for over a quarter of all school-related cases reported so far.

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