BUCYRUS — Health officials with Crawford County Public Health said in a press conference Tuesday at 1 p.m. that the first confirmed case of COVID-19 has been found in Crawford County.
The notification was given to CCPH Tuesday morning. Crawford County is now one of 49 counties in Ohio to have a confirmed case of COVID-19.
According to Crawford County Public Health Commissioner Kate Siefert, the person is in his or her mid-60s. No other identifying information will be released.
According to Crawford County Public Health Medical Director Dr. Chris Johnson, who is a practicing physician with Ohio Health, the Crawford County resident was directed by Ohio Health to visit a drive-thru testing facility in Columbus. He said the person was self-quarantined before the test and has been quarantined since the test occurred.
He said the person is considered to be in the high-risk categorization due to his or her age.
Local nursing staffs are conducting contact tracing and will notify any individuals found to have been with six feet of the individual for at least 15 minutes, Siefert said.
Siefert said the county as a whole should consider the virus to be communitywide and take the necessary precautions. Agreeing with Siefert, Johnson said the best thing for area residents to do is act like they have it and distance themselves from others.
Johnson said not every person falls into the same screen groups regarding who will be tested for COVID-19. He said people who work in healthcare and have direct patient contact and first responders like police and firefighters who have had contact with the virus are in the first screening groups.
Additional screening groups include those who have a fever, cough and shortness of breath and are residents of a long-term care facility and hospitalized patients.
Age, existing health conditions and other factors will be considered with each individual person. Residents will be told if they qualify to be tested by calling the Avita COVID-19 Hotline at 419-468-0800.
“As providers, we want everyone tested,” Johnson said. “We want to know who has it, so we can help guide people, but it’s just not doable at this time. So, we ask for patience and understanding that although we’ve had one confirmed case now in Crawford County, I don’t think any of us have question that there are probably hundreds of cases in Crawford County. We just can’t test everyone.”
Johnson said that reason is why area residents must practice social distancing, the sick should wear masks and stay home, and other requests made by the Ohio Department of Health’s Stay-at-Home Order.
Ohio Department of Health COVID-19 tracker
CCPH Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Blythe Buurma said Ohio is starting to accelerate up the projection curve of expected cases. She said CCPH has had multiple conference calls with Dr. Amy Acton, director of the Ohio Department of Health. Buurma said it is unknown for sure if Ohio is exactly on track with the curve established to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed.
Buurma credited smaller populations in rural communities in northwest and southeast Ohio for the slower spread in the areas, but said the residents of those areas need to do their part to slow the spread as well.
Hospital “no visitor” policies are one way local hospitals are attempt to control the spread of COVID-19. Avita Health Systems President and CEO Jerry Morasko said Avita Bucyrus, Galion and Ontario hospitals are preparing for the influx of COVID-19 patients.
He said 17 tests between the three hospitals have been taken and six have returned all with a negative result. He said the current test takes approximately five days but said in a conversation Tuesday morning with Ohio State University he was told they will have a test with a three-hour turnaround.
“We’re also looking at doing testing in-house at our Avita hospitals. We’re trying to get the equipment to do that,” Morasko said. “We’re hearing that’s going to take us a couple weeks.”
To limit exposure to Avita patients, visitors have been limited to:
- End of life patients
- Patients under the age of 18
- Patients with disabilities
- Patients undergoing emergency surgery
- Maternity patients are limited to one support person
All elective surgeries have been postponed to sustain the supply of personal protective equipment.
Jette Cander, with the Crawford County Emergency Management Agency, said the agency is in dire need of donations of PPE to give to the necessary agencies. The equipment needed includes N95 surgical masks, latex gloves and goggles. She said those donations may be made at the Crawford County EMA office at the courthouse by calling the EMA office at 419-562-6009 and someone will come outside to receive the donation.
EMA Director Kirk Williamson said his office is a support agency for the health department and has received an emergency shipment of supplies but said the county is always in need of more.
Every speaker during the press conference urged Crawford County and area residents to practice social distancing, follow the ODH Stay-at-Home Order and do their part to stop the spread.