Muskingum County continues to see an increase in cases of the Coronavirus as the number of deaths caused by it and the resulting pandemic reinforces an almost daily reminder of the toll it has taken on area residents.

Meanwhile, the state is projecting an even larger increase of cases in the coming weeks whilst a vaccine could begin arriving in limited qualities as early as next week.

During his monthly address Tuesday afternoon, Dr. Jack Butterfield, Medical Director of the Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department, said that the curve of daily cases is exploding exponentially with the number of cases within the community.

Butterfield added that there were three times as many cases in the month of November than that of the previous month of October, which was alarming, as the month of December is on pace to have even more cases.

Attributed to the colder weather keeping individuals indoors, Butterfield said that the county is currently experiencing a seasonal surge as people socialize, for extended periods of time, with others not in their household.

“When you gather with someone who is not in your household, you are gathering with everybody that that person or those persons has been with for the last two weeks,” said Butterfield. “How do you know that those people have followed COVID mitigation efforts? It is not a safe time for your holiday gatherings. That’s not a mandate, it’s advice. It is strong advice that comes from all the medical experts. Please be safe. I know it’s not fun, it’s not what we want, but it’s what we have to do.”

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, the Muskingum County Joint Unified Command Center reported a total of four additional deaths, with one individual being in their 50’s.

The county’s twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth COVID-19 deaths were of an 80-year-old, a 90-year-old and a 56-year-old, respectively, all of whom died due to COVID-19.

The fourth death, which was reported Wednesday, the county’s twenty-seventh COVID-19 death, was of a 76-year-old who died due to “COVID-19 pneumonia.”

The county has now reported five new deaths thus far in the week, only two fewer deaths than the entire previous week, with two additional reporting days left.

The previous two days also resulted in an additional 136 positive cases of the virus, most of which are attributed to community spread, with an uptick in cases within area nursing homes.

Butterfield said in his address Tuesday that many of those who contract the virus at a nursing facility end up needing to go to a hospital for treatment.

Monday during his twice-weekly press conference, DeWine cited similar data across the state as for his Heath Department’s recommendation that those in nursing homes, as well as facility staff, be some of the first eligible to receive the vaccine.

A local hospital, Genesis, has also been selected as one of only ten sites across the state that will be administering the vaccine.

It was selected based upon its geography, population and access to ultra-cold storage capacity.

Canada’s health authorities recently approved use of the Pfizer vaccine, with the United State’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices expected to make a similar recommendation later this week.

The Unified Command also relaunched their COVID-19 dashboard, giving insight once again as to the overall number of active cases and hospitalizations.

That dashboard was temporarily taken down due to a technical issue that needed to be resolved.

As of Wednesday, December 9 there are 1,041 active cases and 45 current hospitalizations.

The number of ICU beds currently in use by COVID-19 patients at Genesis Hospital remains unknown, but at hospitals throughout the state, the percentage continues to rise as more and more patients are admitted and require specialized care.

Lastly, the dashboard indicates that a total of 1,556 county residents were tested for the virus last week with a positivity rate of 32.4 percent, which is likely to keep Muskingum County at the top of the state’s reporting dashboard due to its high rate of cases per capita.