MEDINA COUNTY, Ohio — The Medina County Health Department said it is now seeing cases primarily through community spread, with an average of 85 cases a week in the county.
Earlier in the pandemic, many of Ohio's COVID-19 cases came out of congregate living facilities, such as nursing homes. In Medina County, Krista Wasowski, the health commissioner, said there have only been 17 cases in congregate settings since early June.
Wasowski said the community spread the health department is seeing appears to be inadvertent, and that many younger people may be experiencing mild illness that they believe to be a summer cold or allergies.
"It's been hard for folks," Wasowski said. "It's been hard for us to try to get people to be willing to stay home a little bit of extra, just to make sure what's going on with them before going back out into the public."
That's also led to difficulties with contact tracing, according to Wasowski.
"There's one piece of really not wanting to inconvenience your friends or other people that you've come into contact with," Wasowski said. "I think it's also hard. I don't know about you, but [on] any given day, to really think back about everybody that you've been in contact with is kind of hard, especially if you're not thinking that you're sick."
She added, "I believe most people do try to give complete lists [of contacts] that they can. It's just not necessarily what we're seeing all the time."
Wasowski said the advice she is giving to people includes limiting their social groups.
"If you have those couple of people that you come into contact with regularly and it's a smaller group, it's a lot easier to know who you were with the other night if your group is very, very small," Wasowski said.
She noted that it's not about trying to figure out where exactly someone became sick, but rather "to find out if there's anyone else who might be likely to become sick so that we can prevent them from making other people ill."
If you've gone for a COVID-19 test and think you may have the virus, Wasowski said, "We really want you to stay home and stay away from other people, even within your own home, to try to prevent transmission."
Additional Coronavirus information and resources:
See complete coverage on our Coronavirus Continuing Coverage page.
Rebound Northeast Ohio News 5's initiative to help people through the financial impact of the coronavirus by offering one place to go for information on everything available to help and how to access it. We're providing resources on:
Getting Back to Work - Learn about the latest job openings, how to file for benefits and succeed in the job market.
Making Ends Meet - Find help on topics from rent to food to new belt-tightening techniques.
Managing the Stress - Feeling isolated or frustrated? Learn ways to connect with people virtually, get counseling or manage your stress.
Doing What's Right - Keep track of the way people are spending your tax dollars and treating your community.
We're Open! Northeast Ohio is place created by News 5 to open us up to new ways of thinking, new ways of gathering and new ways of supporting each other.
Click here for a page with resources including a COVID-19 overview from the CDC, details on cases in Ohio, a timeline of Governor Mike DeWine's orders since the outbreak, coronavirus' impact on Northeast Ohio, and link to more information from the Ohio Department of Health, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, the CDC and the WHO.
See data visualizations showing the impact of coronavirus in Ohio, including county-by-county maps, charts showing the spread of the disease, and more.
The CDC and the Ohio Department of Health are now recommending the use of cloth face coverings in public to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Read more about the CDC's recommendation here. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to make a face maskfrom common household materials, without having to know how to sew.
View a global coronavirus tracker with data from Johns Hopkins University.
