trying to overcome '<' not supported between instances of 'numpy.ndarray' and 'str'

app.py

@@ -68,8 +68,8 @@ def predict(age, female, race, elective, aweekend, zipinc_qrtl, hosp_region, hos
     .apply(lambda x: x.astype('category'))
 
   # converting ordinal column to ordinal
-  ordinal_cat = CategoricalDtype(categories = ['FirstQ', 'SecondQ', 'ThirdQ', 'FourthQ'], ordered = True)
-  df.zipinc_qrtl = df.zipinc_qrtl.astype(ordinal_cat)
+  #ordinal_cat = CategoricalDtype(categories = ['FirstQ', 'SecondQ', 'ThirdQ', 'FourthQ'], ordered = True)
+  #df.zipinc_qrtl = df.zipinc_qrtl.astype(ordinal_cat)
   
   # reading the model from GitHub
   with urllib.request.urlopen('https://github.com/fmegahed/tavr_paper/blob/main/data/final_model.pkl?raw=true') as response, open('final_model.pkl', 'wb') as out_file: