An indoor mask advisory has been issued for Columbus and Franklin County effective immediately, regardless of vaccination status.
Columbus Health director Dr. Mysheika Roberts and other health officials announced the advisory as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared 64 of Ohio's 88 counties areas of high or substantial increases in COVID cases.
Franklin County Public Health Commissioner Joe Mazzola says the county's positivity rate has more than doubled in the past month, and the rolling average of cases has risen 56% in the past week.
Dr. Roberts says the mask recommendation is only an advisory - a state law prevents local health departments from doing more.
State health officials report just under 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24-hours, as the surge launched by the arrival of the delta variant continues. There were 76 new admissions to hospitals, 13 to intensive care units.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID has more than doubled in the past 2 weeks, and the the state' positivity rate currently stands at 5.7%.
Health experts say almost all of the recent COVID cases and hospitalizations in Ohio were unvaccinated people. Fewer than 50 percent of the state's population have been vaccinated.
