WOOSTER Five or so years down the road, kindergarten classes statewide most likely will have a few fewer youngsters starting their educational journey as Ohio reports a drop in births in 2020.
The Ohio Department of Health reports 129,186 births in the state in 2020, which is down more than 5,000 from the 134,560 deliveries in 2019.
Locally, Wayne County has followed that trend, with 2,150 recorded in 2020, down from 2,245 in 2019, according to the Wayne County Health Department.
But, heading south about 20 miles, a few more babies were born in 2020 than in 2019. Holmes County s Health Department shows 669 births in 2020, and 638 in 2019.
The drop statewide, and in Wayne County, could, in some fashion, be related to the year of the pandemic. For a Wooster couple, it was. With plans to grow their family starting in March 2020, Raymond and Geren Cunningham chose caution because of the unknowns about COVID-19.
There have been a total of 235 COVID-19 related deaths in Tuscarawas County.
The Holmes County Health Department was notified Thursday that the county moved from Risk Level 3 (Red) to Risk Level 2 (Orange) in the Ohio Public Health Advisory Alert System. The Ohio Public Advisory Alert System is a color-coded system designed to supplement existing statewide orders through a data-driven framework to assess the degree of virus spread.
Tuscarawas County COVID-19 school report for the week ending Feb. 21:
Dover City Schools five new student cases (118 total cases), no new staff cases (54 total cases).
Indian Valley Local Schools two new student cases (42 total cases), one new staff case (42 total cases).
MILLERSBURG Holmes County Health Commissioner Mike Derr said numbers reported by the state about the percentage of the Holmes County population getting vaccinated are misleading.
Holmes County was listed earlier this week, by the state, as the county with the fewest number of vaccines administered. The county had started vaccinations on less than 3% of its population, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
The county provided the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for 2.95% of the population. More than 26% of its residents over age 80 have received the first shot, the ODH reported.
As of Thursday afternoon, the first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine had been given to 1,310 or 3 percent of the Holmes County population, according to the Ohio Department of Health.