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All Three Health Departments release statement recommending universal masking for all residents.
August 13, 2021
For Immediate Release
BUTLER COUNTY, OHIO – COVID-19 cases are rapidly rising in Butler County. Over the month of July, the number of new cases doubled over a two-week period. This pattern appears to be maintaining for August as the positivity rate has once again jumped drastically over a one-week period.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the level of community transmission in Butler County has been designated as “high,” the highest level on a scale from low-moderate-substantial-high. Given new evidence on the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant, CDC has updated the guidance for fully vaccinated people. CDC recommends universal indoor masking for all while indoors at public spaces, regardless of vaccination status.
All three health departments strongly encourage all residents to follow guidance from the CDC. We urge all residents of Butler County to utilize universal masking while indoors in public spaces, regardless of their vaccination status.
We encourage masking at any and all times while indoors including in such places as a business, office, agency, workplace, places of worship, school, libraries and while shopping or gathering with people not in your usual bubble, etc.
We have an obligation to do all that we can to protect one another from COVID-19, by masking once again, getting vaccinated if eligible, social distancing and washing our hands. Viruses live to mutate and they mutate to live. Each time the virus replicates, there is another chance for a new and stronger variant to form.
Vaccination is our best option to stop COVID-19 in its tracks. Only around 50% of those in Butler County are vaccinated, therefore, masking, distancing and cleaning become imperative to help provide additional “layers” of prevention. This requires participation from all. Last year, an Ohio Department of Health study demonstrated that masks worked very well while indoors to keep us as safe as possible from COVID-19, and to limit its spread.
We strongly recommend that until this new Delta variant is suppressed and under control and everyone who wants a vaccine gets one—all Butler County residents wear a mask when they are inside a building, while in a car, bus or other forms of enclosed spaces.
This is not an order but a data-derived, science-based recommendation.
In addition, all those eligible are urged to get vaccinated. You can locate a vaccine clinic at gettheshot.coronavirus.ohio.gov.
Butler County General Health District, The City of Hamilton Health Department and the City of Middletown Health Department will continue to work with together we closely monitor this ever-evolving situation.
To view the most recent local data, the Butler County Weekly COVID-19 Epidemiology Report, visit: http://revize.bcohio.us/revize/BOH/news_detail_T6_R195.php
Butler County General Health District – 513-863-1770
City of Hamilton Health Department – 513-785-7080
City of Middletown Health Department- 513-425-1818
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