Here are your morning headlines for Friday, Aug. 26:
- Ohio launches monkeypox tracker as cases climb
- Cuyahoga County remains at a high community level of COVID-19 for a fifth straight week
- Northeast Ohio colleges relax COVID protocols while warning students of monkeypox
- Advocates call on Ohio leaders to put $308M of federal relief funds into affordable housing
- Akron ready to show some pride
- Guardians fall to the Mariners
- Your weather forecast: Scattered showers and thunderstorms
Ohio launches monkeypox tracker as cases climb
The Ohio Department of Health has launched a new web portal that tracks monkeypox cases across the state. According to the tracker, which was released to the public on Thursday, Cuyahoga County has the highest number of cases in the state. The dashboard shows 69 monkeypox cases in Cuyahoga County. The second largest number of cases, 33, are in the Columbus area in Franklin County. [Ideastream Public Media]
Cuyahoga County remains at a high community level of COVID-19 for a fifth straight week
The CDC puts the case rate at about 207 per 100,000 residents, a slight drop from last week. Nine other Northeast Ohio counties posted high community levels of COVID, including Lorain, Ashtabula and Trumbull counties. [WKYC]
Northeast Ohio colleges relax COVID protocols while warning students of monkeypox
College is back in session for many in Northeast Ohio, and COVID-19 restrictions like masking have been lifted in many cases. Colleges now have a new threat to contend with in monkeypox, and they sent out notices to their students and staff warning of the symptoms, how it’s spread and noted that testing is available. Area health departments also have limited stocks of vaccines available, several colleges noted in their releases. [Ideastream Public Media]
Advocates call on Ohio leaders to put $308M of federal relief funds into affordable housing
A coalition of advocates for people without homes is calling on state leaders to put $308 million from federal COVID-19 relief funds into affordable housing. Amy Riegel, executive director for the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, said the demand in the housing market is creating a domino effect that forces low-income people to pay for apartments they can’t afford or even go homeless. [Statehouse News Bureau]
Akron ready to show some pride
Akron’s annual Pride Festival takes place tomorrow. This year’s LGBTQ+ celebration kicks off at 10 a.m. with the Akron Equity March at the south end of downtown and proceeds to Lock 3. It includes a full day of events and wraps up with fireworks. This is the first major Akron event that will be able to take advantage of the city’s expanded DORA district which allows patrons to carry alcoholic beverages outdoors across at 145-acre zone. [Crain’s Cleveland Business]
Guardians fall to the Mariners
Mitch Haniger hit a three-run home run in the first inning off Triston McKenzie, and that was all the Seattle Mariners needed to beat the Cleveland Guardians, 3-1, at T-Mobile Park. Cleveland’s only run also came in the first, when Steven Kwan hit a double off the Mariners’ Marco Gonzalez and scored on José Ramírez’s infield groundball. [The Associated Press]
Your weather forecast: Scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly after noon. Partly to mostly cloudy. High 82. Tonight, partly cloudy. Low 61. Tomorrow, Saturday, sunny. High 82. Sunday, mostly sunny and hot. High 88. [National Weather Service]
