Laura Fauss of the Columbiana County Health District says county and state health departments are at a loss for trying to drive home to people how important covid prevention measures are.

"We've been talking with the governor, they're constantly asking us what's happening in our county and all of the counties and trying to gather that information to make good choices on what we can do to help stop the spread, and I don't know what the answer is to that," Fauss said Monday.

According to the health department, several events in the last two weeks have led to a huge spike in COVID cases that have at least 300 people now quarantined.
One of them - an indoor funeral where folks were there from out of state and didn't wear masks or social distance.
That resulted in at least four COVID cases.

"One of their first questions to me is 'what am I allowed to have for my loved one?'" said Frank Lellio of Rossi Bros. and Lellio Funeral Home in Youngstown.

Local funeral directors like Lellio say many funeral homes all have similar safeguards to keep patrons healthy.

"We make sure everyone has a face mask when they enter the building, everything's clearly marked, and maintain the six foot social distancing," Lellio said. "In the obituary we ask that everyone maintains the distance, wears the mask, and they not linger once inside the funeral home."

Many funeral homes also have live streaming and encourage sending condolences via flowers, phone calls or cards instead of attending a service in person. 

But health officials stress that all the precautions in the world won't do any good if people don't follow them.

"It's hard but we've just got to stick to that because those are the best tools that we have," said Fauss.