CLEVELAND — On Jan. 1, 2022, Cuyahoga County rang in the New Year with a title it never wanted: highest COVID-19 case rate out of all 88 Ohio counties.
But by the end of the month, the county has undergone a reversal, ranking last in case rates across the state.
In data from the Ohio Department of Health published on Dec. 30, Cuyahoga County was number one in cases per 100,000 residents, with fellow Northeast Ohio area Holmes County in last. In data from Jan. 27, Scioto County in the southern region came in at No. 1, with Cuyahoga now at the bottom.
"We peaked somewhere around the 1st of the year,” Cuyahoga County Board of Health Commissioner Terry Allan told 3News. "At that time, the 1st of the year, we had the highest rate of cases in Ohio among the 88 counties. We were 13 times the CDC rate for high transmission [of 100 cases per 100,000 residents]."
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Cuyahoga County was one of the first in the state to experience the onset of the omicron variant, which caused a spike in cases and strain on hospitals. The onset of the new, highly contagious variant was evident in positivity rates.
"Within the testing center located on the Cleveland Clinic campus, with the National Guard, and University Hospitals, they had over 50% positivity of people that were coming there," Allan said. "So one out of every two people that were there were testing positive."
In the community overall, Allan said there was a 36% positivity rate, which included not just hospitals but pharmacies and other testing sites. At the end of January, that positivity rate looks different, now down to 20%.
"We now have, amazingly here at the end of January, the lowest case rate in the state," Allan declared. "From our peak at 13 times the CDC rate of high transmission, we're now at about four times the CDC rate of high transmission, and we continue to drop."
The descent down the other side of the surge is also evident at the Cleveland Clinic. The number of COVID patients in Clinic facilities statewide dropped from 1,200 to 393 in under a month. The decrease in cases is good news to Dr. Robert Wyllie, the system's chief medical operations .
"I hope we don't see another variant," Wyllie added. "We'll remain optimistic."
Allan is remaining cautious, urging people to not let their guards down amid the dip and to stay vigilant with vaccinating and taking safety measures.
"There is hope, but we have to continue doing what works even during this break," he stressed. "We want people to get vaccinated, we want people to get boosted, and we want people to get their children vaccinated."