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WEEKLY ROUNDUP | Ohio’s COVID-19 resurgence heralded by record-setting week

By Mahoning Matters staff
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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Ohio, as COVID-19's spread last week reached record levels not seen since the state's winter surge.

Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Ohio Department of Health medical director, during a media briefing last week, warned that the pandemic is "trending in the wrong direction," as COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions have spiked tenfold since July 1.

Toward the end of last week, the state reported more than 6,000 new cases of COVID-19 for four days in a row, the most since mid-January, when the state's winter surge was on the decline. Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties also reported more than 200 new cases for three days in a row last week.

Every Ohio county is now considered to have a "high" rate of coronavirus transmission under federal guidelines, which is 100 new cases per 100,000 people over the last two weeks. That rate is two to four times higher in Mahoning Valley counties, according to ODH.

“What we are seeing now is very troubling and reminiscent of our winter surge, before vaccines were available,” Vanderhoff said. “We all need to work together to get a higher rate of community protection. We all need to choose to be vaccinated.”

The dire projections came days after debates on whether school children should be required to wear masks. Boardman parents spoke out against the district's 20-day mask mandate at an Aug. 31 meeting, citing unfactual or debunked scientific claims about COVID-19 prevention and downplaying the virus' effect on children.

"There's 75 million school-aged children in America, and we only lost 400 of them," Doug Reed, pastor at Bridge of Hope Church in Youngstown, said during the meeting.

Former Boardman school administrators also shared their struggle to keep schools open last school year, when the state mandated masks for K-12 schools and the COVID-19 vaccine had not yet become widely available.

"There were many times last year when I felt defeated, like I was standing on the deck of a sinking ship, quarantining hundreds of students and dozens of staff," said retired Boardman High School principal Cindy Fernback. "Those numbers are not exaggerations. We would juggle teacher coverages to make sure we had adults in classes to keep the doors open."

COVID-19 trends in Ohio

Between Aug. 29 and Sept. 4, the state reported:

  • 39,705 new COVID-19 cases, up from 29,140 the week before, including:
    • 569 new cases in Mahoning County, up from 478
    • 400 new cases in Trumbull County, up from 317
    • 311 new cases in Columbiana County, up from 263
  • 1,313 new hospitalizations, up from 1,129.
  • 149 COVID-19 deaths, up from 110.
  • 59,789 Ohioans have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, down from 66,905.

As of Sept. 4,

  • 6,115,303 Ohioans have started to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, including
    • 115,692 in Mahoning County, an increase of 1,069 (down from 1,350 new first doses the week before);
    • 95,748 in Trumbull, an increase of 896 (down from 1,071);
    • 41,805 in Columbiana, an increase of 488 (down from 529).
  • 52.32 percent of the state population has received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Mahoning Valley counties continue to lag behind the state rate.
    • Mahoning County: 50.59 percent;
    • Trumbull County: 48.36 percent;
    • Columbiana County: 41.03 percent.

Last week's coronavirus news

  • Respiratory therapist Nick Bruno said he's seen the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was one of the few people who spoke in support of requiring masks for students during a Boardman school board meeting on Aug. 31. "I could tell you nightmare stories of what I have seen, but suffice it to say, I would not wish it on my worst enemy," Bruno told administrators. One anti-mask parent told Bruno he wasn't welcome at the meeting, that it was only for those who disagreed with the district's decision to require masks for at least 20 days.



  • Columbiana County Health District, in acknowledging the county's fast-rising two-week rate of positive coronavirus tests, republished a list of COVID-19 testing sites in the region. The county on Tuesday reported an 11-percent positivity rate for the two weeks ending Aug. 24, the highest among Valley counties. That's up from 9.4 percent the week prior and 4.4 percent the week ending July 27, according to a news release from the district.
  • According to the Ohio Hospital Association, one in every eight hospital patients in Ohio has COVID-19, and one in five COVID-19 patients are receiving intensive care. That’s doubly worse at hospitals in the state’s rural areas, where one in four patients are hospitalized with COVID-19 and one in three are in the ICU, said Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff. Though Ohio hospital capacity is not yet critical, doctors are now considering capacity more carefully, should the latest COVID-19 surge go unabated.



  • The "mu" variant of the novel coronavirus has been detected in 38 countries as of Aug. 29, though it only accounts for 0.1 percent of all COVID-19 cases sequenced worldwide, McClatchy News reported. It’s unclear how many coronavirus infections in the U.S. are of the mu variant — which originated in Colombia — but Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief White House medical adviser, said health officials are “keeping a very close eye on it.” Still, it’s not “an immediate threat right now,” he added during a White House COVID-19 briefing on Thursday. “It is rarely seen here, [and] it is not at all even close to being dominant.”



  • A new poll found COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the United States has dwindled in recent weeks. The Axios/Ipsos coronavirus index poll found 20 percent of respondents said they are unlikely to get a vaccine — the lowest level since the index started tracking vaccine opposition. It comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted formal approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and as the highly contagious delta variant continues to spread.



  • A judge in Butler County last week ordered a hospital to prescribe a COVID-19 patient with ivermectin, an animal dewormer drug that federal agencies have advised against taking. Julie Smith filed an emergency relief order for the use of ivermectin for her husband, 51-year-old Jeffrey Smith, who has had COVID-19 since early July and has been on a ventilator at West Chester Hospital near Cincinnati, according to the lawsuit.

This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 3:52 AM with the headline "WEEKLY ROUNDUP | Ohio’s COVID-19 resurgence heralded by record-setting week."