A COVID-19 vaccination clinic has been scheduled for Thursday at the Highland County YMCA in Hillsboro for those 50 and older or working in areas of high exposure to the virus, Highland County Health Commissioner Jared Warner said Monday in a news release.
The clinic will be held from noon to 7 p.m. The at-risk positions include funeral workers, law enforcement, childcare workers and other select occupations.
To register, go to https://highlandcovidvax.timetap.com/ or call 1-866-395-1588. To see the times available, go to the scheduler and select the specific clinic and location.
“This will be a huge clinic for our little health department, so thank goodness for community partners,” Warner said.
He also said there have been some “hiccups” with the new scheduler, but the department is happy with it.
“Governor DeWine continues to push hard and give timelines for a switch to the state-provided Vaccine Management System, but it has a long way to go until it includes the basic functionality that we need at the health department,” Warner said.
According to the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard, updatedMonday, 15.56 percent of the population in Highland County has started itsvaccinations, equaling 6,714 people. The ODH considers started as “when an individual has received at least one valid dose of COVID-19 vaccine.” This resource lists each age group and the amount that have started their vaccines.
Also, according to the dashboard, 8.18 percent of the population in Highland County has completed its vaccinations, equaling 3,531 people. The ODH considers completed when “an individual has received all recommended COVID-19 vaccine doses and is considered fully immunized.”
In terms of cases, Highland County’s 14-day case rate as of March 12 was 122.80 per 100,000 population, an average of around four cases a day. Warner said outpatient visits, emergency department visits and hospitalizations are “down as low as I think we are going to get them.” Warner said the trends are “really encouraging,” but the county might be done seeing dramatic drops in cases.
According to dashboard, Highland County has had 3,324 total cases of COVID-19, 178 hospitalizations, 51 deaths and 3,162 presumed recovered from the virus.
In a news release from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, he said that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) updated its guidelines on nursing home visitations. These guidelines can be found at https://www.cms.gov/.
Concerning indoor visitations, the CMS recommends that nursing home facilities should always allow indoor visitations for everyone, no matter the vaccination status of the resident or visitor. However, there are specific situations that would limit visitation. Those situations include:
* Unvaccinated residents if the COVID-19 positivity rate in the county is more than 10 percent and less than 70 percent of the residents in the facility are fully vaccinated;
* Residents with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis, vaccinated or not, until they’ve met the criteria that discontinues transmission-based precautions;
* Quarantined residents, vaccinated or not, until they’ve met the criteria for quarantine release.
DeWine also talked about four places COVID-19 rapid testing was made more accessible to Ohio residents.
Thanks to the state’s partnership with Federal Qualified Health Centers, there are over 150,000 rapid tests at community health centers, which have professionals that give the tests free of charge. Communities and local health departments have also partnered together to have at-home testing available for schools, nonprofits organizations and first responders. Public libraries have partnered with the state to have at-home tests available to more communities. Lastly, a March 10 partnership with K-12 schools and the state gave 200,000 at-home tests to Education Service Centers.
Stephanie McCloud, ODH director, updated the mandatory requirements for athletes Mondady. The new guidelines state that:
* For athletes and students in extracurricular activities who were exposed not through the classroom, the CDC still recommends a 14-day quarantine and knows that any less quarantine “shorter than 14 days balances reduced burden against a small possibility of spreading the virus.” Players, coaches, officials or other people who were in close contact or had direct contact with that person and stay asymptomatic can consider the following to stop quarantining: After 10 days without testing or after day seven after they receive a negative test result (which must happen on day five or later).
After they stop quarantining, they should: Look for symptoms until day 14 of exposure. If they show symptoms, the person should immediately self-isolate and contact their local health authority or health care provider.
Those not required to quarantine thanks to exposure in a classroom setting under the school-based exposure guidance can participate in organized sports and extracurriculars if they are symptom-free and follow the applicable guidelines.
Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.
