COVID-19 cases on the rise again in Cleveland

(Plain Press, September 2021)        Mayor Frank Jackson’s administration’s Cleveland Department of Public Health weekly COVID-19 Case Summary for the week of August 8-14 says “COVID-19 cases in Cleveland have steadily increased since July 1^st. Cleveland had a 7-day incidence rate of 91.3 new cases per 100,000 residents this reporting week, indicating a substantial rate of community transmission. At this level of transmission, the CDC recommends masking indoors regardless of vaccination status as part of a layered mitigation strategy.”

   The City of Cleveland data shows that the highest transmission rate is for Clevelanders under the age of 40 with a “high level of 117.7 new cases per 100,000 residents during this week (August 8-14). This age group accounts for 71% of new cases this week, but only 33.6% of eligible individuals in the age group have received any vaccine dose.”

   The City of Cleveland urged all eligible Clevelanders to get vaccinated. The City of Cleveland report issued on August 20^th says, “COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, even against COVID-19 variants such as Delta. Millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines safely. A total of 140,090 (36.8%) Cleveland residents have safely completed a vaccination series. The COVID-19 vaccine is the most important tool available to end the pandemic.”

   The Cleveland report summarizes the types of COVID-19 variant cases identified locally: “555 positive variant cases have been identified among Cleveland residents, including four types of variants (394 cases of Alpha, 57 cases of Delta, 10 cases of Epsilon, and 93 cases of Gamma, and 1 case of a co-infection of Delta and Gamma). Variant cases are identified through genomic sequencing of a random sample of positive COVID-19 test specimens. Not all positive test specimens are sequenced, and the prevalence of these variants is likely greater than counts reported here. The Delta variant is highly transmissible and poses a serious threat of hospitalization or death to unvaccinated individuals, including children under 12 who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated.”

   A total of 348 COVID-19 cases were reported in the week of August 8-14 with 13 hospitalizations. Thus far during this pandemic, 34,725 Cleveland residents have been diagnosed as having had COVID-19 with 2,611 residents having been hospitalized due to the disease and 527 residents dying from complications resulting from COVID-19.