Springfield Regional reopens COVID unit
As cases rise again, county official urges people to be careful.
Clark County’s health commissioner is urging the public to be careful after a spike in cases and hospitalizations caused Springfield Regional Medical Center to reopen its COVID-19 unit.
This week, on Wednesday, 29 were hospitalized with the virus. A week ago, on March 17, nine people were hospitalized for COVID19 at Springfield Regional Medical Center, according to the Clark County Combined Health District.
“They had to reopen an entire COVID floor,” Clark County Combined
Health District Commissioner Charles Patterson said. “They’ve opened another half a unit up and the hospital has now had to ramp up their response again because of the number of COVID patients they are seeing.”
Hospitalizations aren’t the only COVID-19 statistic that has spiked in Clark County. On Thursday, the county reported 253.6 cases per 100,000 people between March 10 and Tuesday, according to the Ohio Department of Health. That’s the highest COVID-19 incidence rate in the state of Ohio.
Between March 19 and Friday, the county confirmed 211 cases of COVID-19, Patterson said, or about 30 cases a day.
“A month ago we were seeing 67 cases, two days worth in an entire week. Now we’re seeing 30 cases a day again,” Patterson said.
Patterson said there are a handful of reasons why cases in Clark County are spiking back up again after hitting a record low in February.
“We had multiple St. Patrick celebrations that went on. We know that children are back in schools, almost all of them are back as of March 1. We know that the sunny weather has brought people back out of their homes,” Patterson said.
Being outside is fine, Patterson said, but the warm weather mixed with the recent passage of the American Rescue Plan by the federal government, has residents have once again started flocking to retail stores.
“I left the health department
last Saturday about a quarter after one to get a sandwich at the Arby’s drive-thru on Bechtle Avenue, it looked like there was no coronavirus problem at all,” Patterson said. “Every parking lot was full.”
Patterson said the community needs to return to COVID-19 safety guidelines like wearing a mask, social distancing and “staying in our groups and pods and not with people who have not been vaccinated.”
“We need the help of all citizens in Clark County to get back on the right track. We’re not out of the woods yet,” Patterson said. “We still need to be prudent and hang out for another month or two until we can get these numbers down.”
Clark County had 12,961 cases and 280 deaths of coronavirus as of Friday afternoon, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
As of Friday, 38,163
Clark County residents had received at least one COVID19 vaccine shot, according to data from ODH. That’s about 28.5% of the county’s population. Nearly 19% of the county’s population has been fully vaccinated.
Statewide, 3,117,500 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 1,763,847 have finished the vaccination process, according to ODH.
Ohio reported 2,742 daily cases of coronavirus on Friday, it’s the highest number of daily cases in the last 21 days, according to ODH.
Over the last three weeks, Ohio has recorded an average of 1,556 cases a day. The state hasn’t reported more than 2,000 daily cases since March 18.
On Thursday, Gov. Mike DeWine said Ohio’s cases appeared to have “plateaued.”
“Cases were dropping and leveled out,” he said.
The state reported 144 deaths on Friday. Ohio updates death data twice a week.