College Counties and a rise in COVID-19 cases

This chart shows the date of onset for COVID-19 cases for four different “College” counties, or counties that have a college in them. Portage county has Kent State in it. Athens County has Ohio University in it. Butler County has Miami University in it. and Wood County has Bowling Green University in it. It is important to note that Butler County will always have more cases in it, as it naturally has a higher population than Portage, Athens and Wood. Portage, Athens and Wood are similar in that the college provides a large majority of the residents, for Butler that is not necessarily the case.

It is also important to note the downfall in cases starting in December. There is not enough data to necessarily conclude that this is because colleges have sent students home for the year. For one, the data is the illness onset date. It is possible that the illness onset date has not been concluded or reported for some of the most recent days. It is also possible that a spike will occur in the next few days, as December 10 2020 marks 2 weeks after Thanksgiving. It is also important to note that the rise all these colleges saw cannot be fully determined to be because of the colleges, as every county in Ohio saw similar rises during this time period.