Cincinnati’s City Hall will see some fresh faces. Photo: Nick Swartsell

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has slammed Greater Cincinnati, and local governments are responding with new protocols.

City of Cincinnati

On Wednesday, Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval declared a state of emergency and announced a mask order for all city buildings. For the next 30 days, all city employees and all members of the public must wear face masks within Cincinnati city facilities to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

“This is a necessary measure to protect lives and ensure that the city’s staff is safe and able to get to work,” Pureval said.

Pureval said the decision for the order was made with City Manager Paula Boggs Muething, Health Commissioner Dr. Melba Moore and in consultation with other regional public health experts as COVID-19 cases within the region continue to quickly spike and healthcare systems are strained to the brink.

“When hospitals don’t have the space, the resources and staff to keep up with the skyrocketing cases, Cincinnati’s’ lives are at risk,” Pureval said. “Slowing the spread is absolutely essential to protecting our hospitals, protecting our residents and keeping the city functioning.”

Masking, social distancing and COVID-19 vaccination and testing are important ways to slow the spread of the virus, experts repeatedly have said. Scientific studies have shown that public masking — even when not everyone does so — can block a high percentage of coronavirus particles from spreading to others and can protect the wearer, as well.

Likewise, getting one of the three COVID-19 vaccination series available in the United States greatly protects people from severe illness and likely hospitalization should they be exposed to the coronavirus, including its highly transmissible variants like Omicron and Delta. Getting a booster provides even more protection against serious health challenges, experts say.

Boggs Muething said that nearly 71% of Cincinnati’s city employees are vaccinated. Those who are unvaccinated or who do not attest to their vaccination status participate in bi-weekly testing, she added. The new emergency order mandating masking within city facilities will protect all employees and limit the spread of illness, she said.

As in other industries, local government staffing has been affected by a high number of absences related to COVID-19. Between Dec. 1 and Jan. 11, 700 city employees reported having the virus, Boggs Muething said. As of Jan. 11, 57 city employees are out with COVID-19, and 61 people are insolation.

Since Dec. 1, the rate of COVID-19 infection in unvaccinated city employees is 8.5%, while infection in vaccinated employees is just 4.5% (neither figure includes those whose vaccination status is unknown).

Watch the city’s briefing here.

Hamilton County

The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners also declared a public health state of emergency on Jan. 11 due to COVID-19.

The board had issued a state of emergency at the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020 that expired in October of last year. Tuesday’s declaration is a renewal of that order.

The declaration states that Hamilton County has a high level of transmission of the coronavirus, particularly the Omicron variant.

During a Jan. 12 briefing with reporters, Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus said the state of emergency declaration will help the county get much-needed supplies faster.

“It’s about purchasing ability and about getting supplies quickly and giving the administrator the ability to not have everything run through a vote from the county commission,” Driehaus said, adding that in the past, such an order has allowed the commission to redirect staff and procedures.

The emergency order will end in 60 days unless renewed.

Driehaus also said that 97% of county COVID patients are not fully vaccinated.

Watch the county’s briefing.

A Dire Situation

Cincinnati Health Commissioner Dr. Melba Moore shared several sobering statistics for both Cincinnati and the region.

She said that Cincinnati has 761 newly reported COVID-19 cases as of Jan. 12, a 49.8% increase over the previous day’s 508 cases. There is a seven-day moving average of 248.6 new positive COVID-19 cases per 100,000, an increase from the previous 228.6 cases per 100,000. There are 981 confirmed COVID-19 patients in regional hospitals as of Jan. 12, with 175 in intensive care units and 133 on ventilators, Moore said. She went on to say that 101% of adult hospital beds within the region are occupied, as are 98% of medical surge beds. Moore stressed that children are being hospitalized with COVID-19 at an alarming rate. Since last week, there has been an 83% increase in hospitalizations for COVID-19 patients ages 0-17, which also is a 540% increase over the last month, she said. Moore said that according to data, only 26% of Hamilton County residents ages 0-19 have completed their COVID vaccination series. COVID-19 vaccinations are available to children ages 5 and older, and boosters are available to those ages 16 and up. “Cincinnati, we can do better,” Moore said, imploring parents and guardians to vaccinate their children.
 Cases continue to increase in January after Christmas and New Year’s gatherings, with Hamilton County’s active COVID-19 cases nearly doubling from 11,700 to 20,141 in a week’s time, according to Hamilton County Public Health Commissioner Greg Kesterman on Jan. 5.

“We are certainly at a time when we are seeing more cases than ever,” Kesterman said.

Also on Jan. 5, Dr. Richard Lofgren, UC Health’s president and CEO, said that Greater Cincinnati hospitals are strained by a virus that continues to change. 

“This pandemic is not over,” Lofgren said, echoing what he had told the commissioners in December. “In fact, it’s heating up more and more intense than it ever has been in the entire almost two years that we’ve been wrestling with this. And I’m the first to tell you that all of us, we’re tired of it.”

“The staff and the frontline nurses and care providers have just done heroic work throughout this pandemic. They can’t maintain the idea of doing double shifts and overtime in the way that they have,” he continued, adding that Omicron cases have been doubling every two or three days and that the variant’s contagiousness is “just stunning.”

On Jan. 11, Pureval joined with Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb to ask Ohio officials for more state resources such as testing sites and supplies. Both cities — two of Ohio’s largest — are being slammed with COVID-19 patients, they said, and hospitals are being forced to delay non-COVID care and procedures.

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This article appears in Jan 12-25, 2022.