COVID-19 surge still hitting Sandusky County

There's hope locally that a recent drop in COVID-19 cases in other parts of Ohio will start to take hold in Sandusky County.

But it hasn't happened quite yet.

Sandusky County recorded 1,624 COVID-19 cases in December, the highest number since the pandemic started in March 2020.

Over the last two weeks, according to the Ohio Department of Health, the county has had 1,483 cases.

Bethany Brown, the county's public health commissioner, told the News-Messenger Sandusky County has seen an average of more than 160 new cases a day over the last week.

"We're not out of the woods yet, as far as our surge," Brown said Thursday.

Brown said the county is on target to top its December numbers if new COVID cases stay around the same level for the rest of the month.

She said area hospitals saw a little bit of a decline in new patients and admissions last week, a bright spot in the wake of high COVID numbers.

Sandusky County hopes to see drop in COVID cases similar to other parts of Ohio

Sandusky County's cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks has dropped slightly.

The county had 2,534.3 cases per 100,000 residents, ranking 29th of Ohio's 88 counties based on statistics released Thursday by the Ohio Department of Health.

In the previous two-week period, Sandusky County ranked ninth in the state in that metric.

Brown said she hopes the county starts to see a drop in COVID cases similar to other parts of Ohio.

According to the Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio has seen improvements in COVID-19 hospitalization numbers after breaking daily records multiple times earlier this month. Since a week ago, the number of Ohioans in the hospital with COVID-19 has been on a steady decline.

Northeast Ohio, the hardest hit, has seen the steepest declines with around a 24% drop over the last 10 days. As of Wednesday, 5,889 Ohioans were in hospitals with the virus.

Ohio health experts have predicted that the current wave of the more contagious omicron variant would slowly trend down in Ohio toward the end of January.

The situation is still dire, however, according to ODH Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff.

Hospitalization and COVID-19 levels are still above the previous winter surge when vaccines were only just becoming available. Ohio is still getting north of 20,000 positive COVID-19 tests every day.

County not seeing a major impact on services due to COVID

At Tuesday's Sandusky County Commissioners' meeting. Commissioner Scott Miller said the county, with its roughly 600 employees, is probably experiencing a similar impact with COVID-19 as private businesses and schools.

Theresa Garcia, the county's administrator, said Sandusky County had put in place a number of different ways residents can access services online or at-home during the pandemic to reduce in-person or face-to-face interactions.

"I don't think it's affected services," Garcia said of the latest COVID-19 surge.

Commissioner Russ Zimmerman said one area that's been impacted recently is the county's work release program for inmates at the Sandusky County Jail.

Zimmerman said there hadn't been any work done through that program in about a month because inmates are not being released due to COVID-related safety concerns.

As of Friday, Sandusky County had more than 13,000 COVID cases overall since the start of the pandemic, with 199 deaths.

Brown said the county has about a 50% vaccination rate.

During recent vaccine clinics, the health department has been seeing mostly residents who need a booster shot, Brown said, with relatively few people seeking their first vaccination shots.

The county's emergency management agency (EMA) is still waiting for more COVID-19 self-test kits from the state, Brown said.

She encouraged residents to go to the federal website covidtests.gov to order four free at-home test kits.

This month, Ohio ordered 1.2 million testing kits, but only a fraction has been delivered, said Vanderhoff. Once shipments arrive, 400,000 testing kits can be distributed with priority going to schools.

Joe Liszak, CEO of Community Health Services, said his organization, the county's hospitals, Sandusky County EMA, NOMS Healthcare, and Brown have been meeting via conference calls weekly to discuss COVID-related issues and how to share resources.

"Even though it's been a really trying time for all of us, we've really come together," Liszak said.

dacarson@gannett.com

419-334-1046

Twitter: @DanielCarson7

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Sandusky County still sees high number of COVID cases, hopes for decline