COVID cases soar for 6th straight week

BY JD LONG jim@harrisonnewsherald.com

HARRISON COUNTY—COVID-19 cases in Harrison County have hit 53 new positives since last week, largely because of the delta variant. The cases are up from 34 the previous week, according to Harrison County health administrator Garen Rhome. It’s the sixth consecutive week that COVID cases have risen.

Rhome said the vast majority of COVID cases (more than 95%) result from the delta variant, which has led to many more young people becoming sick; they are the group most resistant to getting vaccinated.

“We’re still seeing more minors getting sick each day,” Rhome said earlier this week. He said of the 53 cases that 14 were found in people ranging from the 20s to 50s. Rhome said the vaccine-hesitant ones will finally agree to the vaccine after it hits home, like seeing someone they know catch the virus.

Of Ohio’s hospitalizations since Jan. 1, 97.5% are unvaccinated patients, Rhome also said. Just over 500 of the 22,132 hospitalizations were for vaccinated cases — the rest were unvaccinated patients. He said they are concerned with the breakthrough cases: vaccinated

COVID patients that have been hospitalized or have died. To add to those statistics, a whopping 98.9% of COVID deaths were people not fully vaccinated, meaning just 80 of the 7,247 Ohio deaths (1.1%) since January were fully vaccinated.

Rhome talked of Region 8, which encompasses Harrison County, and out of 630 in-patient beds, 25% are COVID cases. Rhome called this “staggering” and added that out of 76 ICU beds occupied, 43 are COVID patients. And he said in Region 7, south of Harrison County, it’s much worse. “We’re very, very concerned,” he said. But, when asked how bad it would have to get before officials begin discussing lockdown measures, Rhome said they are there now.

“We are sounding the alarm now,” Rhome said when hearing from public health and health care officials. Rhome said the variant spreads and strikes quicker than the original COVID-19.

“It’s getting worse quicker with a steeper curve than before in the wrong direction,” Rhome explained. Just this week the city of Columbus announced that mask-wearing is now mandatory for all indoor spaces.