Hamilton County has gone without a mask mandate for a month now, and COVID-19 cases continue to trend down, thanks in large part to the availability of highly effective vaccines.
The county averaged 27 new COVID-19 cases per day over the past week, as of Friday, compared to an average of 49 cases per day in the week the mask mandate was lifted on April 28.
However, the number of coronavirus patients hospitalized in the county has hovered around the same levels as the weeks in late June 2020, leading up to when the mask mandate was implemented on July 10.
As of Friday, there were 35 confirmed coronavirus patients in Hamilton County hospitals and three COVID-19 patients awaiting test results.
Dr. Carlos Baleeiro, pulmonologist and medical director of critical care at CHI Memorial Hospital, said that he’s still treating patients with COVID-19 in the intensive care unit, but those patients are much younger than they were earlier in the pandemic. Those same patients have also not been vaccinated against COVID-19.