By Brett Milam
Editor
As we enter the second March with COVID-19, Julianne Nesbit, health commissioner, sees the downtrend in new cases as encouraging. 
On Feb. 1, Clermont was seeing a seven-day new case average of 82.29 cases. As of Feb. 23, that’s down to 25.14.
While the downward trend has been encouraging, Nesbit pointed out that the numbers are still at a “much higher level than we would like.”
For example, Clermont still isn’t down to where it was in October 2020, when its new cases per capita was at 129. As of Feb. 25, new cases per capita is at 214.12.
A metric that might have confused some residents is that on Feb. 2, the county had 120 total deaths due to COVID-19. By the next week on Feb. 9, that number was at 200. That’s because there’s been a statewide backlog in reviewing the death data, causing a large number of deaths to be added statewide. Fluctuations like that will continue as the data gets sorted.
The latest figures as of March 1 showed there are 201 deaths attributed to COVID-19 from 18,389 overall cases, with 761 hospitalizations. So far, 17,419 people are presumed to have recovered from COVID-19.
Still, the downtrend in new cases isn’t the only encouraging sign: There’s also the continued rollout of the vaccine. The United States currently has the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines circulating, with both safe and efficacious. In addition, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the Janssen Biotech vaccine, which is a pharmaceutical company of Johnson & Johnson, for an emergency use authorization on Feb. 27.
“In making this determination, the FDA can assure the public and medical community that it has conducted a thorough evaluation of the available safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality information,” the FDA said in a press release.
Nesbit said CCPH are “eager to get as many of our residents vaccinated as possible.”
That eagerness doesn’t stop because it’s the weekend, either. CCPH has regularly been delivering vaccines and setting up appointments for future vaccines on Saturday.
To do that, Nesbit said they’ve been fortunate to have a large number of volunteers from the Medical Reserve Corps.
MRC is an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and built up in conjunction with the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
“We have nearly 40 volunteers in both medical and non-medical roles that are assisting in vaccinating as many of our residents as we can. We would not be able to vaccinate on this scale six days a week without our volunteers,” she said. “We will be vaccinating our residents for the next several months, so having a large group of dedicated volunteers is critical and will help ease the burden on our paid staff members.”
Nesbit isn’t the only one eager about the vaccine rollout.
A local couple, who didn’t want their name used in the paper, lives on a steep hill and with the recent snowstorms, were unable to clear their driveway. However, Keith Robinson, communications coordinator for CCPH, said they didn’t want to miss their vaccine appointment, so they walked down their driveway, which in the picture is only about a third of the way up their hill, where a friend had left their car so that they could borrow it. In so doing, they were able to make it to CCPH’s office for their second dose of vaccine.
Other recently vaccinated residents include Clermont County Commissioner Bonnie Batchler and former Clermont County Commissioner Edwin Humphrey. Both of whom were on CCPH’s waiting list and were vaccinated when it was their turn.
In the prior week, CCPH was focused on residents 75 and older. This week, CCPH is calling those who are 70 and older.
As of March 2, 13.12 percent of Clermont County residents or 27,087 people have started the vaccine — meaning one of two required doses — and that’s not all from CCPH. Private providers are also administering the vaccine. For example, Kroger helped to administer the vaccine for most of the school districts’ staff in the county when they were eligible in the last week of February.
“We are certainly pleased to see that number slowly increasing, but we know that there is still a long way to go before everyone who wants to be vaccinated can get vaccinated,” Nesbit said. “Now that Ohio has completed vaccinating long-term care residents and staff and the first doses of vaccine to all of the school staff members, there is more available to the general population.”
Nesbit also added her encouragement for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“We hope to see more providers in the county come online and be available to begin vaccinating our residents,” she said.
Speaking of online, Nesbit said CCPH is working with the Ohio Department of Health to begin an online scheduling system for vaccination. Until that system is up, they have closed their waiting list, which has more than 25,000 names on it. So far, CCPH has contacted about 9,000 people on that list.
And until that online scheduling system is up, CCPH will continue to contact the people who are already on the list.
“We are starting to see that nearly 50 percent or more of the people on our waiting list have already been vaccinated at another provider, which is encouraging,” she said. “We hope to move through the remaining individuals on our list quickly as more vaccine is available.”
Nesbit encouraged residents to continue checking the CCPH website, www.ccphohio.org, or the ODA’s website, for a list of other providers in the county that have vaccine available.
The promising news of the downward trend and the vaccine rollout doesn’t preclude caution, however.
“We still need to be aware that there are variants out there and that could cause another increase in cases, so everyone needs to remain vigilant with social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands and staying home when sick,” Nesbit said.
When the pandemic and lockdowns to mitigate the spread began in earnest in March 2020, not too many people expected to be entering another March with the pandemic still with us. That brings about the question of, “When are we going to get back to normal?”
“It is still too early to say,” Nesbit said. “Though we know a lot more about the virus than we did last year at this time, it is still a new virus, and we are still learning. It would be premature to predict what will happen too far down the road, especially with the variants that we are now seeing.”