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COVID-19 is spreading at an alarming rate in Ohio and across the country, experts say. Locally, two counties in the three states are seeing the numbers move in opposite directions.
In the past two weeks, more people have tested positive in parts of Butler County than anywhere else in the state. During the same period, Hamilton County has seen its number of new coronavirus cases decline.
“When you see the degree of illness these patients can have, it can be heartbreaking,” said Atrium Medical Center President Dr. Keith Bricking.
He said he knew the patience was running out, but he pleaded with people in his community to stay the course as the numbers soar.
“In fact, I was recently looking at our COVID positive hospital patient count from 30 days ago, and we have doubled the number of COVID hospital patients,” Bricking said.
According to data from the Ohio Department of Health, several Butler County zip codes were among the best in the state for new cases of COVID.
“We have also doubled the number of patients who are on ventilators, we have doubled the number of patients who are in our intensive care unit,” said Bricking. “So what we’re seeing is definitely an increase in the community in the number of patients who are positive for COVID, but it’s also leading to sicker patients who require hospitalization.”
Bricking said many of the new cases he was seeing were due to people letting their guard down.
“More precisely, people are at work, they take off their masks, they are together in a dining room, they have their masks on for 10 to 15 minutes, then suddenly, the whole team that was in the break room turns around. positive, ”he says.
Some cases are mild, others become severe, and more and more young people are infected.
In Hamilton County, hospitalization is also a major concern, but there are currently fewer new cases of COVID overall than in recent weeks.
“For more than a week now, our reproductive number has been at or just below one,” Hamilton County Public Health Commissioner Greg Kesterman said, referring to the average number of people infected after contact with a positive case.
“Today we are at 0.97 for Hamilton County and 1.0 for the region,” he said.
Local health officials have made it clear they are not using these advances as an excuse to abandon the battle against the virus.
“We’ve tried to plan and work with our doctors on the medical staff to figure out when to turn off services or when we’re slowing down services, what it looks like and how we’re going to implement it. But we haven’t limited the offerings at the hospital yet, ”Bricking said.
He said his team remains vigilant and is fighting to avoid the worst-case scenario.
Health experts from both counties said it was still too early to determine what kind of effect the Thanksgiving gatherings will have on the number of positive tests, but are gearing up for a tough few weeks ahead.
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