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BAY CITY, MI – COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Bay County, especially among unvaccinated residents due to the delta variant touring. A health official said the best way to describe the variant is something akin to a wildfire.
“You have to think of the delta variant as a forest fire and the unvaccinated people are dry tinder,” said health worker Joel Strasz of the Bay County Department of Health.
Strasz made the statement while providing an update to the Bay County Board of Commissioners at its regular meeting on Tuesday, September 14 regarding the COVID-19 situation in Bay County. In short, Strasz said the delta variant is responsible for an increase in cases.
Strasz said Bay County had its lowest period of viral activity since the start of the pandemic during the months of June and July with only maybe one or two cases per day. However, he explained how the delta variant has drastically changed those numbers and that the county is seeing what it estimates to be 18 to 25 cases per day.
“It is four times more transmissible if not more than previous strains of the virus and the original strain of the virus,” Strasz said. “As a result, we are seeing an increase in cases and an increase in the number of severe cases. Many of these cases that are happening and are active now are due to transmission at school. “
Currently, there is no county-wide school mask mandate for Bay County like the one in Genesee County that requires indoor student masks for all 5-year-olds. and more, unless one of the seven exemptions is met. No school has had to close yet in Bay County due to a new “test-to-stay” policy, according to Strasz, which allows students identified as close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19 to undergo a five-day rapid test regimen.
Students can then stay in school each day their negative test permits and they do not have to isolate themselves.
According to the MI Safe Start map, Bay County recorded a 10.9% test positivity rate for the virus over a period of September 7 to 13, which places the county in a high risk category. The 7-day test positive rate was 5.5% on August 1 and 0.7% on July 1.
The state reports that Bay County had 250 weekly cases of COVID-19 reported from September 7 to 13, up from 101 the previous week from August 31 to September. 6. As of August 1, Bay County had only 30 cases in a period from July 26 to August 1. As of July 1, a total of seven weekly cases had been reported in a period from June 25 to July 1.
Strasz said the health department has regular conversations with the McLaren Bay area. According to these conversations, the virus and the delta variant seem to be hitting the unvaccinated hard right now.
“About nine out of ten people who are actually admitted to hospital and have severe cases are not vaccinated, so we are redoubling our efforts as much as possible to get people vaccinated, but yet we have kind of reached the point. saturation point. at this point, ”Strasz said.
According to data provided by the state, 56.4% of people in Bay County received two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as of Wednesday, September 15. 61.4% of residents have started vaccination. , which means they received one or more doses of any vaccine.
Strasz said the Bay County Health Department is redoubling its efforts to encourage more vaccinations, however, Strasz said Bay County is currently at a “saturation point.”
“We anticipate that as the variant develops we will likely see an increase in the number of people who want to be vaccinated, maybe they have sat on a fence for some reason or maybe they just didn’t believe it. vaccination was necessary but it is.
Strasz stressed the importance of vaccination in his presentation to the board of directors while stressing that the Bay County health department tries to maintain “normal lives” for residents.
“That being said, we are doing our best to try to mitigate the spread but to keep life as normal as possible. At this point last year, there was no vaccine, there were no standardized treatments, ”Strasz said. ” This has changed. The vaccine is readily available, people vaccinated are ten times less likely to have serious illness and end up in hospital, ten times less likely to die from COVID-19 than an unvaccinated person. “
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