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LISBON – With the number of COVID-19 on the rise since school began, medical services administrator Jamie Elenz told the board of health on Wednesday, staff have been helping schools trace contacts.
Elenz said school nurses are overworked right now and the Public Consulting Group (PCG), which took over the contact tracing on June 1 at the request of the state of Ohio, has about seven to 10 days late in reaching people in quarantine.
Elenz said nurses in his ward had received phone calls from people with quarantine questions, such as what to do with siblings of an HIV-positive child.
Health Commissioner Wes Vins told council why some schools in the area are reverting to masking. The Ohio Department of Health organization chart says if two students are sitting three feet apart and one catches COVID-19, the other is required to self-quarantine, unless the other student is wearing a mask. Schools try to keep as many students as possible in the seats.
Elenz said schools not only have students and staff with COVID-19, but also respiratory, hand, foot and lip viruses and the common cold.
Vins said the health department has ordered 3,600 COVID-19 tests and that schools and the ESC are currently having tests as they attempt to get quarantined students back to school earlier. Students can return on the eighth day if they are COVID-19 negative on the five, six or seven days.
The numbers continue to rise and Vins noted that it was ahead of them. He said the health ministry and other partners in the region were working to secure more supplies for shrinking local hospitals. Staffing was also reportedly problematic for some local hospitals.
According to the East Liverpool Hospital Facebook page, 19 people were hospitalized there on Wednesday with COVID-19. Of these, 16 were not vaccinated, one was fully vaccinated and the other two were partially vaccinated.
The Ohio Department of Health reported on Wednesday that Columbiana County had 11,708 coronavirus cases, including 611 hospitalizations and 241 deaths. There have been 22 county residents aged 0-19 hospitalized since onset and 1,527 cases in this age group.
Columbiana County remains below the state average for vaccinations with 39 percent vaccination completion.
Some people refuse to be vaccinated. They are skeptical and resistant to the efforts of health officials and local, state and national politicians.
Three of the women attended the board of health meeting on Wednesday with one of them, Sherry Kissinger, claiming to be the group’s spokesperson.
While the other two women were making videos, Kissinger said she had more than 600 signatures on a petition against the warrants that have been imposed on businesses and individuals since the start of the pandemic.
“You violated our constitutional rights” Kissinger said. “You have unconstitutionally harassed businesses and churches. “
She read a lengthy statement criticizing whether there is scientific evidence to support mask wear and vaccines. She asked for figures supporting health measures and instead cited two studies that said masking does not prevent the spread of the disease.
The women spoke of lawsuits in other parts of the state that had been filed against Governor Mike Dewine and health departments over the warrants.
Board Chairman Shawn Apple asked Kissinger if she had lost any family members to COVID-19 and was told “no.”
“Well you might feel different if you did” Apple responded.
Vins stressed that the local health department was not responsible for creating any of the mandates imposed since the start of the pandemic. The local health department only followed the advice of the advice given by the Ohio Department of Health.
The women noted that residents of Columbiana County would not accept any additional tenure in the future.
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