COLUMBUS — Nearly a year after its launch, Ohio Department of Health has canceled its COVID-19 alert map.

Ohio Department of Health Director Stephanie McCloud announced on Thursday that the four-tier, county-by-county map, was being ended immediately.

The mapping system was launched in July 2020 and was updated weekly, listing the state of counties during the pandemic on a system with rankings of Level One Yellow, Level Two Orange, Level Three Red and Level Four Purple, the most severe.

Lawrence County reached the Level Three designation twice while the map was in effect, one short stint in summer 2020, followed by another for several months through the winter and into 2021.

On the final update of the map, which was issued on May 20, the county was at Level Two Orange, as were neighboring Scioto, Jackson and Gallia counties.

“As cases decline and vaccinations increase, this data is no longer the best measure of Ohio’s current status,” a statement from the health department read on Thursday. “The Ohio Department of Health will continue to share COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, deaths, current trends, key metrics, and vaccination data daily at coronavirus.ohio.gov.”

The end of the map system comes a week before Gov. Mike DeWine’s date for most health orders related to the pandemic to be lifted on June 2.