Union County Health Department employees are all hands on deck as they work through the largest COVID-19 surge the area has seen.
“We have been (accepting) help from really anybody with a pulse,” UCHD Epidemiologist Mary Salimbene Merriman said of contact tracing efforts within the health department.
She said there were 1,517 cases of COVID-19 among county residents (not including individuals at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, Central Ohio Youth Center or West Central) in December.
Salimbene Merriman noted that the number marked a 55% increase from the November case load.
Still, she said she believes the figure is a “significant underestimate.”
Salimbene Merriman said the online system that tracks COVID-19 cases in Ohio “couldn’t handle the influx” of recent cases and experienced a bottleneck.
For that reason, Union County has notched between 250 and 300 cases per day over the past several days.
She said there are currently 12 Union County residents who are hospitalized, four of whom are in the ICU and one who is on a ventilator.
Salimbene Merriman said 83 Union County residents have died of coronavirus – 56 in 2021 and 27 in 2020. No deaths have occurred yet this year, as Salimbene Merriman said the last occurred on New Year’s Eve.
Director of Health Promotion and Planning Shawn Sech elaborated on testing and vaccination efforts locally.
“The testing landscape has continued to be a thorn in everyone’s side,” she said, referencing the recent shortage of COVID-19 tests.
Sech explained that the State of Ohio recently altered the format it uses to distribute at-home tests throughout the state. She said UCHD was allotted 9,000 tests.
The health department received 3,500 of those, which Sech said were issued within three to four days.
She said UCHD recently had to limit the amount of home tests it will give per household, in an attempt to spread them among families.
In an effort to fill the gap, Sech said UCHD has “ramped up PCR testing” at the Union County Fairgrounds.
Two hundred and fifty people were administered PCR tests last week, Sech said.
She added that appointments are required for the drive-thru tests, which will provide results within 48 hours.
Appointments can be scheduled at www.unioncountycovid.org/testing. Insurance is billed for PCR testing, but no one is turned away if they are uninsured.
PCR testing was previously offered Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon. However, Sech said UCHD is planning to expand Thursday availability and cancel Fridays in the future because Friday results were not sent until the following Monday.
Sech said demand tends to seesaw between tests and vaccines.
“As testing surges, vaccinations seem to decline a little bit,” she said.
UCHD is continuing to offer COVID-19 vaccines, for both adults and children. UCHD Clinic Business Manager Doug Matthews said the health department is vaccinating about 60 people per day.
Fiscal Officer Amy Hamilton also noted that the volume of calls received by the health department has been significantly higher in January.
She said three people are generally assigned to answer phones “at all times,” with the exception of noon to 4 p.m. Wednesdays, to ensure those employees have time to work on other responsibilities.