Lorain County COVID-19 numbers declining rapidly, health commissioner says

The recent omicron-fueled COVID-19 wave appears to be past its peak locally, and Lorain County's new case numbers are rapidly declining, according to county Health Commissioner Mark Adams. "We had a large peak where we were having almost 1,000 cases a day near the end of the year," he said, adding that numbers are now "trending straight down." Adams made the comments at a meeting of Lorain County's Community Protection Team on Tuesday. The Community Protection Team is a group of local officials in the public health, medical, government and social services fields who meet every two weeks to discuss the state of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lorain County. The group held its first meeting of 2022 over Zoom on Tuesday. A rapid decline in the number of omicron variant cases was modeled, and the drop occurred similarly in some other countries, Adams said. "It has taken that same progression where we see that it is prevalent out there, and then it just kind of wanes off," he said. "This is kind of where we hope it is. What happens is you start seeing less restrictions, you start seeing everything be open again and you wouldn't see those hospitals getting that surge again. That is where we hope it goes." Data shared on Lorain County Public Health's website over the first few weeks of 2022 also shows that the county's number of new coronavirus cases is dropping. On Jan. 5, Lorain County Public Health reported there had been 5,294 new cases countywide over the previous seven days. On Jan. 10, it was reported that there had been 3,533 new cases over the last seven days. And on Tuesday, it was reported that there had been 2,776 new cases over the last seven days. Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital President Dr. Rebecca Starck said the Clinic believes the wave of COVID-19 cases peaked about Dec. 31 into the first couple of days of January. "At one point, our Cleveland Clinic positivity rate was around 52 percent," she said. "We are now down closer to 20 percent, so we did see a rapid sweep of omicron into Northeast Ohio, and then a very rapid decline." Starck said the aftermath of that wave persists, with about 850 COVID-19 patients still in Cleveland Clinic hospitals across Northeast Ohio. According to data provided to the Ohio Department of Health by the Ohio Hospital Association, there were 6,036 COVID-19 patients in inpatient hospital beds statewide as of Tuesday, the lowest total in at least two weeks. Todd Harford, chief operating officer at University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center, said the hospital also saw its coronavirus peak at the end of 2021, which posed a challenge due to the fact that some staff members were also out with COVID-19. The facility decreased its inpatient operating room cases to just emergent and urgent cases, Harford said, which allowed more health care providers to care for emergency department patients. "We also did get the help of the National Guard, and I cannot thank them enough for the help they've given us over the last three weeks," Harford said. "They are starting to get redeployed a little bit, through UH, to go westward because they are following the trends and where it's going." Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine stated Tuesday that the Ohio National Guard's COVID-19 support is shifting to address increasing needs in southern Ohio. According to a news release from the governor's office, "decreasing demand at some of the first Guard-supported COVID-19 testing locations in Northeast Ohio will allow the Guard to surge into other areas in the state, including Central and Southern Ohio that are seeing increased need." The final day of COVID-19 testing at the Walker Cleveland Community COVID-19 Testing site will be Sunday, Jan. 23. According to the news release, the reason for the closing is the decreasing testing demand. The Ohio Department of Health and Ohio National Guard have been working with Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals at the site, located at 10524 Euclid Ave. Nearly 25,000 people have been tested there since Dec. 21, according to the governor's office. Contact Dylan Reynolds at (440) 329-7123 or dreynolds@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @drey1357.