By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Wood County Health Department is scheduled to get its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines around Dec. 22. It is still unknown how much will be sent with the first round, according to Wood County Health Commissioner Ben Robison.
The health department, which has been focused on testing and contact tracing, will soon have a “two-front war” when the vaccines arrive, Robison told the board of health Thursday evening.
“The light is there at the end of the tunnel – I’m pretty sure it’s not a train,” he said.
The next month or so will be rocky, Robison predicted. But the health department is rehearsing its vaccine distribution plan.
“Every single person at the health department has a role in our vaccine campaign,” he said. “So when it arrives, it’s ready to go.”
The initial doses will go to hospitals, pharmacies at long-term care facilities, and local health departments. The health department will make it available to EMS personnel and those in nursing homes, plus package it and send to others for distribution.
Robison’s goal is that local residents will find it easy to get the vaccine once it’s available.
“You can get a vaccine as easily as a frosty from Wendy’s,” if all goes as planned, he said.
The health department will try multiple avenues to get the word out to Wood County residents about the vaccine.
“We want to make it as widely available as possible,” Robison said.
The health department is looking at contracting with a company offering an app for pre-registering for vaccine clinics. The app would be very helpful to the health department, since it performs data entry for the state database. The cost would be 50 cents per dose.
“That’s going to be money well spent,” he said.
Once the initial rounds of vaccines are dispersed, the health department will try to make the public aware of who is next in line. A self-scoring quiz will be placed on the health department’s website, and an app may be tried that notifies people when they are eligible for the shots. The vaccine information will be pushed through community groups, schools and churches.
“We’re going to try to make this as widely known as we can,” Robison said.
In preparing for the vaccines, the board of health voted Thursday to enter into an agreement with Bowling Green State University to use its cold storage for vaccines.
Board member Bob Midden questioned the need for heightened security for the cold storage units that normally hold research materials.
“There’s a possibility a black market could develop for these vaccines,” Midden said.
BGSU officials shared those concerns, Robison said. So only Wood County Health Department employees will have access to the cold storage.
Though hope is on the horizon, people still must be very cautious, Robison said.
“We are facing a significant increase in cases,” he said. “This poses a significant risk to our residents,” and could overwhelm the local medical community. People still need to wear masks, wash hands, stay socially distant, and limit the size of gatherings.
During a recent pop-up testing site in Perrysburg, 811 tests were performed, with 222 coming back positive – a rate of 25%. Robison pointed out that many of those tested were from outside the county, and some had already tested positive elsewhere.
“It was a much needed event,” he said, adding that another pop-up testing site may be scheduled later this month.
In order to keep up with tracking new cases, the board of health voted Thursday evening to extend its contract for continued contact tracing of positive COVID cases among BGSU students and staff.
“We’re appreciating the help,” said Amy Jones, the health department’s director of health promotion and preparedness.
The board also voted to hire four more people to keep up with contact tracing in the rest of the county – giving the health department a total of 35 contact tracers.
In the last month, the contact tracers reached out to 2,862 people, Robison said.
“The numbers are really staggering,” he said.
The community spread is increasing, with some school districts having more than 30% of their student bodies in quarantine, he added. Most of the people who are advised to quarantine or isolate are complying, he said.
And so far, the Wood County Health Department is keeping up with cases.
“There are many health departments who have to make really difficult decisions about which cases they can’t follow up on,” Robison said.
Also at Thursday’s meeting, it was mentioned that Middleton Township offered to share its unused CARES Act funding with the health department. The money will be used to buy a drive-through portable tent for testing or vaccine sites, for about $11,000. The health department staff and board thanked Middleton Township for sharing the funds.
