SIDNEY – A week after dropping from Level 2 to Level 1 on the Ohio Public Health Advisory System, Shelby County moved back up to Level 2 on this week’s advisory.

During his press conference Thursday afternoon, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Shelby County was one of four counties that moved from Level 1 to Level 2 this week along with Meigs, Mercer and Vinton counties due to increased spread of the coronavirus. Level 1, which is yellow on the advisory map, means there is active exposure and spread of the coronavirus while Level 2, which is orange, means there is increased exposure and spread.

Auglaize County moved from Level 1 to Level 3, which is red on the advisory map and means there is very high exposure and spread. Auglaize County reported 85.4 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents this week after reporting just 48.2 cases per 100,000 residents a week ago.

Meanwhile, eight counties dropped in the advisory system. Brown, Columbiana, Coshocton, Fulton, Lawrence and Logan counties dropped from Level 3 to Level 2 while Holmes and Van Wert counties dropped from Level 2 to Level 1.

Ohio has 55 counties at Level 3 this week, the fewest number of counties at that level since Oct. 29. However, 52 of the 88 counties saw an increase in cases this week.

“As the decrease in cases slows, we may see some back and forth movement of counties in the advisory system,” DeWine said.

In the past two weeks, Shelby County has reported 78.2 cases per 100,000 residents, which is up from the 45.3 cases per 100,000 residents it reported last week.

In total, Shelby County has reported 4,471 cases of COVID-19 with 146 hospitalizations and 87 deaths during the pandemic. The county saw an increase of four deaths reported since last week.

There are 4,330 Shelby County residents who are presumed to have recovered from COVID-19, and there are 54 active cases – down from the 56 active cases that were reported last week.

Throughout Ohio there have been 1,006,171 cases of COVID-19 with 52,539 hospitalizations, 7,369 intensive care admissions and 18,382 resident deaths.

In Shelby County, 9,082 people have started or completed COVID-19 vaccinations, which is 18.69% of the population and up 904 people since last week. Statewide, 2,948,323 people have been vaccinated, which is 25.22% of the population.

For more information about COVID-19, visit https://coronavirus.ohio.gov and www.shelbycountyhealthdept.org.