Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
The COVID-19 death rates per capita in Montgomery and Greene counties are lower than almost all of Ohio’s other highly populated counties, but health officials can’t cite a clear reason for the difference.
As of Friday afternoon, Greene County has had only five reported COVID-19 deaths among a total population of 161,573, or one death per 32,315 residents, per Ohio Department of Health data. Montgomery County has 17 reported COVID-19 deaths among 535,153 residents, or one death per 31,480 residents.
Among Ohio’s 20 most-populous counties, they rank No. 2 and No. 3 for the fewest COVID-19 deaths per capita, behind only Clermont County on the east side of Cincinnati.
For comparison, Lucas County, which includes Toledo, has had 240 deaths, or one per 1,841 residents, and Mahoning County, which includes Youngstown, has had 173 deaths, or one per 1,380 residents.
Medical and public health officials said there are several possible contributing reasons for the low death rates in some local counties, but no simple, overriding answer.
Glen Solomon, chairman of internal medicine at Wright State University’s Boonshoft School of Medicine, said “we honestly don’t know for certain” why local death rates have been comparatively low.
