The Union County Board of Health took a moment during its most recent meeting to reflect on its “final wrap-up” of the health department’s response to COVID-19.
In a presentation to the board, Health Commissioner Jason Orcena called the pandemic the “single most impactful event in living memory for public health agencies.”
While the Union County Health Department will continue efforts to tamp the spread of the coronavirus, Orcena explained that most of its “broader programming” ended in 2022.
Orcena said national COVID-19 emergency declarations are scheduled to end on May 11, nearly three years after sweeping measures were imposed to curb the spread of the virus.
He added that COVID-19 will also be downgraded by the Ohio Department of Health from a Class A infectious disease to Class B. Class A diseases must be reported immediately via telephone and case investigations begin right after.
While COVID-19 was classified as a Class A disease at the height of the pandemic, Orcena said employees at the health department were working seven days a week for more than a year straight, only taking a break on Christmas Day.
“I cannot tell you how many staff got pulled into disease investigation,” he said.
His presentation indicated that Union County has seen 19,909 cases of COVID-19, 682 hospitalizations and 117 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Likewise, 28,540 home test kits and 9,203 PCR tests were administered from June 10, 2020 through March 2, 2022.
Once vaccines became available, UCHD focused on administering the shots. As of December 31, 2022, the health department gave 35,822 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Orcena said partnerships with other local agencies, like the Union County Emergency Management Agency, were crucial to the health department’s response.
While the area EMA was awarded the Public Health Partner of the Year award in 2022 for its contribution to the community and support of public health efforts, Orcena said many throughout Union County worked on different facets of the pandemic response.
He noted that the health department had a very close partnership with the Chamber of Commerce throughout the pandemic, as the pair worked to balance community members’ safety with supporting local businesses through challenges brought about by the coronavirus.
Early in the pandemic, Orcena said UCHD officials made a commitment to turn around businesses’ required “safety plans” within 24 hours so they could continue to operate as safely as possible in light of COVID-19 mandates from the state and federal governments.
Working with businesses also evolved into ensuring any local events could safely happen.
Orcena referenced the health department’s collaboration with the City of Marysville to open the municipal pool during the 2020 season.
While the pool opening was “really controversial,” Orcena said he still stands by his decision to allow the pool to open and is thankful for the creativity of public health and city employees to implement measures like an online tool that tracked how many people were at the pool at any given time.
He emphasized that community support also played a large role.
The Medical Reserve Corps, which consists of volunteers that can assist public health efforts, grew from about 30 volunteers to 283 in March 2020, Orcena said. From June 2020 to June 2021 alone, volunteers donated over 5,300 hours to assisting in the COVID-19 response.
Although public health officials have faced a range of disease outbreaks in the past 15 years, from H1N1 to Ebola to measles, Orcena said he hopes that the COVID-19 pandemic is a “once in a career lifetime” event.