By Brett Milam
Editor
Clermont County’s hospital and emergency room visits for COVID-19 have been decreasing over the last few weeks amid the return to school.
As of press time (the numbers are updated every Thursday), Clermont is still in the orange designation per the Ohio Public Health Advisory system for “increased exposure and spread.” The level designations comes from the color-coded system devised by the Ohio Department of Health to ascertain the level of spread in Ohio.
Clermont was in the red for “very high exposure and spread” in mid-July, then orange by the end of July, and by Aug. 13, was back in red. However, since Aug. 27, the county has remained in the orange.
Julianne Nesbit, health commissioner with Clermont County Public Health, said hospital numbers and emergency visits have been decreasing the last few weeks, which is a “good sign and has helped us move back into the orange in the advisory system.”
That decrease comes at a time when the school districts in the county largely re-started in-person classes, with only small percentages at each district opting for online learning. Nesbit meets with the county’s superintendents every Friday to update them on spread in the county, and any guideline changes.
“All of our schools have worked really hard and have great plans in place to minimize the spread and keep their students and staff safe. For those schools that have had positive cases so far, the communication has been great, and they are doing everything they can,” she said.
Starting on Sept. 15 and going forward every Tuesday, CCPH will be required by ODH to report COVID-19 cases by school district. She said it is expected that ODH will have a “dashboard” on their website with COVID-19 positive cases by school district.
A few school districts in the county have made that data already available on their websites. As of the week of Sept. 8, Milford has one positive case at Meadowview Elementary, two at Pattison Elementary, one at Milford Junior High, one at Milford High School, and one at the Success Academy.
From Aug. 31 to Sept. 8, there were no additional cases. From May to the first day of school on Aug. 31, there were seven total cases between three students, one high school staff member, two district coaches, and one school building administrator.
Milford said a positive COVID-19 case means a student or staff member has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently under quarantine, and is therefore, not at school. The caveat there being that school employees are considered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be “critical infrastructure essential employees,” and as such, they may not be required to quarantine if exposed to a positive COVID-19 case, so long as they are not symptomatic and they follow CDC guidelines.
As of Sept. 14 at Bethel-Tate Local Schools, among staff members, one member has quarantined at Bick Primary (no confirmed positive cases of COVID-19); and two members have quarantined at the Central Office (no confirmed positive cases of COVID-19).
Among students, there has also not been any confirmed cases of COVID-19 either, but at Bick Primary there’ve been two quarantines; at Hill Intermediate six quarantines; at the Middle School, three quarantines; and at the High School four quarantines.
At Clermont Northeastern Schools, as of Sept. 10, there has been one positive COVID-19 case at CNE High School among a student, and two student quarantines at CNE Middle School and one student quarantine at CNE Elementary School
The week beginning Sept. 7, New Richmond Schools has not reported a positive case of COVID-19 district-wide among staff or students.
At the county-wide level overall, on Aug. 29, the rolling seven-day average of new cases was 18, and by Sept. 8, it was down to five. Emergency visits dropped from a seven-day average of three on Sept. 1 to seven-day average of 0 reported on Sept. 8. And hospitalization admissions were at a seven-day average of 1 on Aug. 30, and are now at 0.14 as of Sept. 8.
“As we’ve seen before, especially after the July 4 holiday, there can be a lag time between when gatherings happen and an increase in cases. So, yes with Labor Day weekend, we could still see an increase in cases as a result of that,” Nesbit said, when asked about any concern post-Labor Day.
Nesbit said she thinks we’re seeing a lot of “COVID fatigue, being six months into this pandemic.”
“But, we know a lot more than we did in March. With schools back in session, we know to wear masks, we know to keep our distance when possible. Hopefully we will all be more vigilant about staying at home when we aren’t feeling well, especially as flu season approaches,” she said.