Franklin County sees rise in COVID-19 positivity rate, rural spread still high
COLUMBUS (WCMH) – While the COVID-19 positivity rate remains steady in Ohio’s rural counties, Franklin County has reappeared in the state’s top ten list of counties with the highest positivity rate.
Franklin County was ranked 9th this week for positivity rate, with 1,871 reported cases between Aug. 25 and Sept. 7. With the county’s population of 1,316,756 people, that works out 142.1 cases per 100,000 residents.
Franklin County was ranked 13th last week, with a positivity rate of 113.9.
“This is a snapshot looking at two weeks, two weeks only, the past two weeks, looking at how many cases per 100,000 population, trying to even all this out,” Gov. Mike DeWine said during his Tuesday briefing.
The other counties in the top 10 are all mostly rural counties. This week’s top 10 is:
- Putnam
- Butler
- Meigs
- Mercer
- Montgomery
- Shelby
- Auglaize
- Darke
- Franklin
- Henry
Putnam had a positivity rate of 301.2, with 102 cases among the 33,861 people living in the county. Last week, it was 268.7.
DeWine said case numbers particularly in Franklin and Montgomery counties were due to students returning to colleges located there.
“Montgomery and Franklin, both of those, are certainly being driven by, to some extent, by what’s going on at Ohio State and the University of Dayton, but by and large, the counties generally are staying pretty much the more rural counties,” DeWine said.
The positivity rate is set by the number of cases per 100,000 residents in the county.