Ohio

  New federal data shows the coronavirus pandemic has contributed to the country’s deadliest 12-month period for drug overdose fatalities, including a sharp increase in overdose deaths in the Ohio Valley. 

  A report from a federal oversight agency shows that over 4,000 patients in the Ohio Valley received high amounts of opioids in 2018 through Medicaid, potentially putting hundreds at risk of addiction and overdose. 

Stay-at-home mom Sarci Eldridge has a big heart. So when Kentucky entered its second round of restaurant restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, her first thought was for her favorite server, Jessica Carey.

  A new federal report shows that West Virginia and Kentucky saw the country’s sharpest declines in personal income last quarter as some forms of federal support during the pandemic expired. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis says personal income decreased in every state in the third quarter of 2020, which includes the months of July, August, and September. 

As the third wave of COVID-19 continues to infect people, new data shows that many hospitals in the Ohio Valley are under strain, running short of bed space, especially for the most critically ill. The following graphs show how the pandemic is affecting hospital capacity in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. (The story continues below)

After more than a decade, Kentucky resident Guy Hamilton-Smith voted this year for the first time in the state. Even though he didn’t vote in person because of the COVID-19 pandemic, sending his ballot through the mail was still an emotional moment.

Dr. Kirk Tucker, chief clinical officer of Adena Health Systems in Chillicothe, Ohio, said a week before Thanksgiving that the health system’s three hospitals in southern Ohio were bombarded with coronavirus patients. But it isn’t just the patients testing positive. The virus has also sickened 65 of his fellow caregivers.

Recently, Tucker said, a doctor there in his 60s tested positive for COVID-19 and died the same day of a sudden cardiac event.

With hundreds of thousands across the Ohio Valley struggling to make ends meet, a suite of coronavirus aid packages, including rent and utility relief funding, eviction moratoriums, and expanded unemployment benefits, is set to expire at the end of December.