Cases of coronavirus COVID-19 continue to emerge in Ohio and Kentucky as the global pandemic increases its foothold in the U.S.
But those confirmed cases haven’t been evenly spread across those states, and none have been confirmed in Hamilton County or Northern Kentucky just yet.
Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton said she believed there may be as many as 100,000 undiagnosed cases spread across Ohio, given the fact that several confirmed cases were transmitted via “community spread,” or without contact with another confirmed case.
But lack of testing supplies has limited detection of the virus, with just a few hundred tests having been performed in both states.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine today announced that the state had confirmed 26 cases of the virus, which emerged from Wuhan, China late last year and has subsequently spread to countries around the world.
The state’s tally today is double the number of cases confirmed yesterday, though that is likely more a function of increased testing than anything else. Ohio is currently awaiting testing results for another 264 people who might have the virus.
None of those confirmed cases are in Hamilton County, though that could change as testing by local hospitals ramps up soon.
Yesterday, UC Health confirmed four cases at its West Chester campus in Butler County — the closest cases to Cincinnati so far.
In addition to those cases, the state has found two in Belmont County, 11 in Cuyahoga County, one in Franklin County, one in Lorain County, three in Stark County, two in Summit County and two in Trumbull County. None of those cases have resulted in death at this point.
There are 16 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kentucky as of today, Gov. Andy Beshear said at a news conference. All of those who have a confirmed case are expected to recover. The state is awaiting the results of 153 more tests.
One of the Kentucky cases was from Bourbon County, three were from Fayette County, six were from Harrison County, four were from Jefferson County, one was from Montgomery County and one was from Nelson County.
Beshear announced today that the state had enforced a mandatory quarantine for the person in Nelson County who tested positive for COVID-19 and did not-self-quarantine.
“It’s a step I had hoped we would never have to take,” he said.
Beshear said the state will ask hospitals to delay elective surgeries whenever possible and request daycare centers to draw up 72-hour plans in case they are ordered to close.
Coronaviruses are a broad category of virus that cause the common cold, among other illnesses. COVID-19 is what scientists call a new, or “novel” form of the virus — one that hasn’t been encountered before and one which epidemiologists do not yet know how to combat.
The virus sometimes causes mild symptoms, or no symptoms at all. But it can also cause very acute respiratory illness that can require hospitalization and even lead to death — mostly among people who are over the age of 60 or who have chronic illness or compromised immune systems.
UC Health’s Dr. Dustin J. Calhoun told attendees at a March 10 city summit that 80 percent of people infected will experience a mild cold. The majority who experience more severe symptoms will also recover. At this early stage, pregnant women and children seem to be less vulnerable, Calhoun said.
Those most at risk are the elderly — mortality rates for those above 70 shoot up to 8 percent, while those under 40 have an estimated mortality rate of about .2 percent.
This article appears in Mar 4-17, 2020.
