Will the Canfield Fair be safe? County health officials expect ‘all hands on deck’
CEDARVILLE — Though large events like the 2021 Canfield Fair have the go-ahead from state officials — while abiding simplified health orders — Gov. Mike DeWine said as spring outings bloom he's focusing more on vaccinating Ohioans against coronavirus than enforcing those mandates.
Though fair organizers have not yet submitted safety plans to Mahoning County Public Health, Health Commissioner Ryan Tekac, however, assured this year's fair will be "all hands on deck" for local health workers, as it is every year.
DeWine, when asked during a Thursday briefing how public health orders could be enforced at the larger venues expected to open their doors soon, suggested he expects business owners, event organizers and their patrons to regulate themselves.
Statewide mask compliance was anecdotally reported near 95 percent this week, DeWine said. And though state inspectors have been watching out for rule-breaking establishments, they haven't issued a single citation nor have they ordered a business to close for COVID-19-related violations.
"If you think about that, what's really happened is people running the businesses have taken charge and dealt with it," the governor said. "When you think about it, it's almost self-enforced."
WHAT COULD HAPPEN TO THE CANFIELD FAIR?
In other announcements Thursday, officials said the Ohio State Fair will not be open to the general public this summer due to public health concerns. Instead, the Ohio Expositions Commission, which runs the annual event, announced the fair will focus this year on agricultural and educational competitions for exhibitors and their families and friends.
The state's largest fair, however, is set to kick off its 175th season on Sept. 1 in Canfield. Last year's Canfield Fair was closed to the public and only hosted Junior Fair exhibitors.
Tekac said he expects this year's fair, which runs through Labor Day weekend and ends Sept. 6, could look "a little different" based on the state of the pandemic, but it will still be an utmost priority for county health workers, who have their hands full each year inspecting its multitude of vendors.
"I've been there 17 years as a health inspector. We're there from the start of the fair until the end. It would be the same for this upcoming fair," Tekac said.
Mahoning County Public Health maintains a dedicated office at the fairgrounds. Fair operators also enlist the fairgrounds' own police force each year, Tekac added.
Though fair operators haven't yet submitted any safety plans to the county health board for review, Tekac noted there's still plenty of time.
"We always work with the fair to ensure it's a safe and healthy fair each year. It won't be any different this year," he said.
A Canfield Fair spokesperson couldn't immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
A new health order issued this week consolidates older health orders into one order applying to all types of events and settings. It keeps a 25-percent limit on the capacity of indoor events, but lifts the state's mass gathering ban and modifies rules on outdoor event capacity.
Under the new rules, family or household groups — or "pods" — are restricted to 10 people at outdoor events, four more than previously allowed, and must be distanced from other pods, DeWine said Thursday.
Those booking the 2021 fair's grandstand events told Mahoning Matters last month the fair would need to be operating at or near full capacity to make entertainment events profitable. Though the state's previous 30-percent limit on outdoor event capacity has changed, it's unclear what effect that may have on the Fairgrounds' grandstands, which seat about 6,200 people.
The new order was intended to simplify pandemic rulemaking, instead focusing largely on the core tenets of COVID-19 safety orders: mask-wearing, social distancing and hand sanitizing, said ODH Director Stephanie McCloud.
"Ohioans have been very successful in doing this. I have every confidence we will be able to do this as long as we have to do it," DeWine said. "I think if we can vaccinate and people continue to be vaccinated at a high level, we will get to the point where we will not have any of these orders on."
'THE WRONG DIRECTION'
Though the governor promised to lift all health orders once the state reached 50 new cases per 100,000 people over two weeks, that metric is not moving "in the direction we want," he said earlier in Thursday's briefing.
The state has reported about 184 new cases per 100,000 people over the last two weeks. Over the last several weeks, that metric has increased from 167 new cases last week; 147 new cases the week prior; and 144 new cases the week before that.
ODH on Thursday reported 108 new cases in the Valley: 40 in Mahoning County; 53 in Trumbull; and 15 in Columbiana.
"While we're going in the wrong direction and certainly going away from our goal of 50 [new cases], we're not seeing the kind of runaway growth we've seen in the fall," DeWine said Thursday. "We can still turn this around if we continue to get people vaccinated."
A little more than a third of all Ohioans have received at least their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, the state reported Thursday. Nearly one-fifth have been fully vaccinated.
Columbiana County last month was downgraded on the state's public health alert system, and was no longer considered to have a high incidence of coronavirus transmission under federal guidelines. This week, however, it's reported more than 100 new cases per 100,000 people over two weeks, making it a high incidence county, according to ODH. It remains at level 2 "orange" alert.
Mahoning and Trumbull counties remain at the state's penultimate alert level, and also are still reporting high incidence of virus spread.
ONE COVID-19 VARIANT IS DOMINATING
Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Ohio Department of Health's chief medical officer, said Thursday he expects a coronavirus variant first seen in the United Kingdom will in the coming weeks become the dominant strain in the state.
Scientists in the state are analyzing samples from up to a third of all positive coronavirus tests for genetic indicators of the new variants, he said during the Thursday briefing.
In those extra tests, about eight times as many variants are being discovered now in the state than about a month ago, Vanderhoff said.
Three variants account for the vast majority of all the genetic variances found in Ohio samples, including the UK strain known as B117, which has "the lion's share," Vanderhoff said. The strain is known to be more contagious and more deadly, he said.
Variants are responsible for much of the recent surge in cases seen in the state, officials said.
Other news
• According to the latest figures Thursday from the Ohio Department of Health, the state is reporting 1,033.606 confirmed or suspected cases of the coronavirus. There have been 20,543 confirmed or suspected cases in Mahoning County; 15,299 in Trumbull County; and 8,452 in Columbiana County.
• From Wednesday to Thursday, there have been 108 new COVID-19 cases in the Mahoning Valley: 40 in Mahoning County; 53 in Trumbull; and 15 in Columbiana.
• Statewide, the new adjusted COVID-19 death total is 18,741, including 577 in Mahoning County; 456 in Trumbull; and 222 in Columbiana. Mahoning County's 577 reported COVID-19 deaths was eighth among Ohio's 88 counties; Cuyahoga County had the most with 2,029. [DEATH DATA WAS NOT UPDATED THURSDAY.]
• In nearby counties: Stark, 31,006 cases and 889 deaths; Portage, 12,070 cases and 192 deaths; and Ashtabula, 6,327 cases and 161 deaths. [DEATH DATA WAS NOT UPDATED THURSDAY.]
• Mandates, restrictions and other challenges over the past year have not hurt the record growth of new business filings in Ohio. The state saw a record 171,073 new businesses in 2020, according to a news release from Secretary of State Frank LaRose. That pace has continued in 2021 with 16,025 new businesses created in February, LaRose said.
• According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health Thursday, there were 1,059,044 COVID-19 cases in the state which have led to 25,327 deaths. There have been 8.669 confirmed or suspected cases in Mercer County and 249 deaths; 6,818 cases in Lawrence County and 198 deaths. In Mercer County, 24,908 people have been completely vaccinated; in Lawrence County, 14,377 have been completely vaccinated.
• All adults in Pennsylvania will become eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination by April 19, the Department of Health said Wednesday. The news comes nearly four months after the state rolled out its immunization effort for 4 million residents under Phase 1A. Vaccine providers now administer up to 83,000 shots per day, acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said.
• The Youngstown City Health District's next mass vaccination clinic at the Covelli Centre will be Thursday followed by April 22, April 29 and May 6. Appointments can be scheduled on the health department's website or by calling 330-502-4276.
• Mahoning County Public Health is soon expected to announce another round of dates for its mass vaccination clinic at the former Dillard's store in Boardman's Southern Park Mall. County Health Commissioner Ryan Tekac said the clinic is expecting 500 fewer weekly doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, down to 2,000 a week. State officials told him it's part of the nationwide shortage caused by a manufacturing error that wasted millions of doses.
This story was originally published April 9, 2021 at 3:52 AM with the headline "Will the Canfield Fair be safe? County health officials expect ‘all hands on deck’."