CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County leaders gave the latest updates on their response to the coronavirus pandemic Friday, as cases have begun to plateau and even drop across Ohio.
Cuyahoga County is no exception, and Gov. Mike DeWine has said the county is "doing better" although it remains under a Level 3 "red" alert due to seeing more than 100 new cases per capita over the last two weeks. Today, experts said hospitalization numbers are relatively flat, while the testing positivity rate has dropped to 5.4% after sitting at 9% less than a month ago.
"Hand hygiene, mask wearing, social distancing, and disinfecting surfaces remain key in our prevention efforts," Board of Health Commissioner Terry Allan said.
Last week, the board recommended all schools begin the year via remote learning only and cancel or postpone all fall sports. North Royalton fully took this drastic step this week in announcing it will not hold athletic or extracurricular activities while students are not allowed in the buildings, effectively wiping out the season.
"Our school districts reviewed our recommendations and their plans," Allan said. "We recognize and respect their responsibility to make decisions that best suit the needs of their respective school communities. To be clear, these are not Board of Health orders. They are recommendations."
Officials also addressed a bizarre Thursday that say DeWine test positive for the virus only to test negative hours later. The more recent test was a more accurate PCR method that has been used the vast majority of the time in Ohio, while the false positive was an antigen test.
"PCR testing means we're testing you for active viral infection," Dr. Heidi Gullet clarified. "These are often done by nose swabs. There is another group of testing called antigen or rapid-testing. This test is not a lab confirmed case. Anyone who tests positive for this will be PCR tested to confirm."
She added, "We do not assume that any test is positive. We have very specific case definitions that are consistent throughout the state."
The briefing came amid intense scrutiny after a photograph of him wearing blackface decades ago surfaced this week. The commissioner later apologized in an interview with 3News' Monica Robins.
You can watch today's entire briefing again in the player below: