SIDNEY — Nine new COVID-19 cases were reported Wednesday morning on the Sidney-Shelby County Health Department’s Facebook. In addition to the new local cases, one teacher at Longfellow Primary has tested positive, resulting in the quarantining of the teacher’s classroom.
According to Tiffany Rank, Sidney City Schools communications director, the staff member — who lives outside Shelby County — was in school on Oct. 7 and did not return to work Thursday or Friday because of the onset of symptoms. She was tested in and lives in another county.
Michael Moore, Longfellow principal, learned of her positive test result on Monday, Oct. 12.
“After immediately discussing with staff members associated with the kindergarten class and determining proximity of the affected staff member to the students, it was decided to quarantine the entire class,” said Rank. “Additionally, the age of the students and their natural lack of understanding of social distancing and personal space played into the decision to quarantine the whole class even though not all the students may have been physically close to her.
“Parents were called to pick up their students but by the time many students were picked up, it was nearly dismissal time. No students from this class rode the bus,” she continued. “They are quarantined for the time advised by the health department from when they were potentially exposed.”
The students, because of their age and the timing of their quarantine, have been mailed learning packets.
“We have a 2-hour early release Thursday and no school Friday due to conferences, so the actual number of full days out of school is not even two full school weeks,” said Rank. “For other grades and schools, quarantined students may be supplied a computer to continue learning remotely during their time off.”
At this point, Sidney City Schools has one positive at Sidney High School, one positive case at Sidney Middle School and one positive case at Longfellow.
Fifteen students are quarantined at SHS and nine students are quarantine at SMS. At Longfellow, the class of 22 students is quarantined as well as one additional student, and three students are quarantined at Emerson. If a school is not listed, they have no active cases or quarantined students.
The new Shelby County cases involve a girl in the 10 to 19 age group; one man in his 30s, two men in their 40s, two women in their 50s, and two women and one man in their 60s
The county has 14 COVID-19 deaths involving one woman in her 40s, one woman in her 50s, one man in his 60s, one man in his 70s, three men and two women in their 80s, three men in their 90s, and a man and a a woman in their 100s.
As of Wednesday, 774 Shelby County residents have recovered, and 133 have not recovered. Currently, eight Shelby County residents are hospitalized because of COVID-19, which includes one newly hospitalized individual.
Of those who have tested positive, 12% are first responders/health care workers.
Breakdown of cases by zip codes includes: 459 cases for Sidney (45365), Anna (45302) 79 cases, Botkins (45306) 26 cases, Conover (45317) three cases, Fort Loramie/Newport (45845) 62 cases, Houston (45333) 22 cases, Jackson Center (45334) 28 cases, New Bremen (45869) two cases, New Knoxville (45871) two cases, Maplewood (45340) 13 cases, Minster (45865) 24 cases, Pemberton (45353) one case, Piqua (45356) 12 cases, Port Jefferson (45360) five cases and Russia (45363) 58 cases.
In the weekly update from the Ohio Department of Health, Sidney Care Center and The Landings each reported a staff member has tested positive.
Miami County Public Health has reported 1,819 positive cases, including 27 new cases. Miami County has had 169 total hospitalizations, including five new hospitalizations, and 56 deaths. There are 1,397 people who are presumed recovered from the virus.
The Darke County General Health District reported it has 1,045 positive cases, including 28 new cases Wednesday. There have been 90 hospitalizations since the pandemic started. A total of 828 people have recovered, and there are 162 active cases. There have been 48 COVID-19-related deaths in the county.
In Wednesday’s update from the state, it was announced Ohio has 173,665 cases of COVID-19. Of those cases, 16,716 have been hospitalized with 3,464 admitted to the ICU. There have been 5,033 deaths related to COVID-19 in Ohio. A total of 145,969 residents are presumed recovered.
Of the positive cases, 52% are women and 47% are men. The median age is 40. The age range of those testing positive is less than 1 year old to 109 years of age.
