After holiday spike, Lorain County avoids purple

ELYRIA TWP. — The chances Lorain County would go purple Thursday on Ohio's coronavirus threat map were "slim to none," Health Commissioner David Covell predicted earlier in the day. He was right — the county stayed red. "I hope this is the last time we get that close," he said. After peaking at about 1,500 coronavirus cases per week in mid-December, the county's situation improved until the holidays, when there was another startling spike. Now the numbers are easing off again in the new year. Covell's team at Lorain County Public Health recorded 737 new cases last week. That's still far above the 150 weekly norm in October, but it's a start, and Covell said he hopes vaccinations will rein in the virus. As of Thursday, at least 13,365 people in Lorain County had been immunized, according to the Ohio Department of Public Health. That number is soft, Covell said, because while health departments are familiar with the state database that tracks vaccinations, pharmacies aren't. A lot of private industry partners involved in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout are just learning how to use it, leading to reporting delays, he said. Vaccine doses are slowly — very slowly — becoming more available. The county health department has received 1,000 doses per week the past two weeks, and Covell said he anticipates that number doubling the next two weeks. His office has been swamped with calls from people who want to be vaccinated. Covell said demand still far outpaces supply. All nursing home residents have had the opportunity to get the first of two doses needed to make the vaccine more than 90 percent effective. "Where that's really going to help is the death rate," said Covell, since about half of all deaths have been in long-term care facilities. Now the vaccine is starting to roll out to the 80-and-older population. Covell said if manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna make enough available to Ohio, Lorain County Public Health could easily give 12,000 injections in a week — at full throttle, with help from the Medical Reserve Corps, the cap would be about 40,000 per week. On Thursday, one day after he was inaugurated, President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to speed up vaccine distribution. It dates back to the Korean War, and allows the president to order private companies to drastically increase materials needed for inoculations, according to The Associated Press. Covell said he's optimistic that enough of Lorain County's population will be vaccinated by June or July to stop the spread of the virus. But he's still wary, he said, because COVID-19 has proved hard to contain. "With COVID, you don't know," he said. "If we get another wave, if it hits before we get enough vaccine in the community, then we could have another surge." Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.