The number of coronavirus cases is surging faster than it ever has in Hamilton County and Cincinnati, prompting leaders to urge the public to wear masks and not gather in large groups. 

“We suspect people have gotten relaxed,” said Hamilton County Board of Commissioner President Denise Driehaus. “The suspicion is people have let their guard down.”

Hamilton County recorded its highest one day total ever of new COVID-19 cases on June 18 with 132 new cases. Between June 16 and June 19, Hamilton County had more than 100 new cases a day. The county only had one day with 100 new cases in the four months prior to that. 

These figures include Cincinnati.

The city of Cincinnati has seen a striking upswing in the illness caused by the novel coronavirus within the last week, culminating with a 100%-plus jump in new cases in one day.

The city’s dashboard count tracking the new coronavirus shows COVID-19 cases increasing from 45 on Sunday to 97 on Monday, then dropping again, but still high with 40 new cases reported on Tuesday.

That high, 97 in one day, was the most new COVID-19 positive cases the city had seen since it started tracking the illness in March.

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While increased testing accounts for some of the spikes, it doesn’t account for such large increases, Driehaus and Hamilton County Public Health Commissioner Greg Kesterman said. 

There isn’t any one reason or event, Kesterman said. There isn’t any data as of yet that the recent large protests have caused the spike, Kesterman said. 

Some gatherings at homes in Hamilton County have resulted in multiple infections of COVID-19. There hasn’t been one “super-spreader” event in Hamilton County as of now. 

Any gathering of 10 or more people is considered by the health department a “mass gathering” and carries more risk, Kesterman said. 

“Just in the course of my daily life, I’m seeing this all over the place,” Kesterman said. “I’m seeing this when I’m at soccer practice, and I walk past baseball fields and there’s 100 adults sitting on bleachers, having beer. That’s a mass gathering and that spreads COVID-19.”

Cincinnati Health Commissioner Melba Moore said there are many variables that go into the case count, but she stressed: “Don the mask. Wear the gloves. Wash your hands more frequently. Keep a distance.”

Three ZIP codes will get more testing sites next week to address a high number of cases: 45240, 45231 and 45238. These include Delhi, Springfield Township and Forest Park areas. 

Hamilton County and the Army National Guard will open six more free testing sites in those ZIP codes next week. 

Many of the cases in the 45238 zip code can be linked to a nursing home, Kesterman said. The other two zip codes Kesterman didn’t have an explanation as to why there’s a higher infection rate. He said those cases are younger people and aren’t due to nursing homes. 

“I don’t have a specific reason,” Kesterman said. “We do know there are some dense housing situations, which can lead to the spread of COVID-19. So that’s one theory we have.”

Dr. Maryse Amin, supervising epidemiologist for the Cincinnati City Health Department, said the cases clearly have increased since Ohio, and Cincinnati in particular, started reopening after a stay-at-home period ended in May. And that seems to have had an impact on growing cases. Moore agreed.

“Businesses opened May 15. I think that, in people’s minds, there was a relaxing of things and they were thinking that maybe the pandemic was over.” It isn’t, Moore said.

Even the drop in new cases in Cincinnati on Tuesday to 40 was considered high, health officials said, and the dashboard shows it. New COVID-19 illnesses in the city started a dramatic increase around June 18 and have bounced around with an average of about 53 new cases in the six-day period through Tuesday.

“We’ve seen an increased percentage of people out there not wearing a mask. We saw large gatherings,” Moore said.

She said Cincinnatians, and others, need to cope with “a new normal” and “change our behavior.”

But officials reminded: Testing has increased too, and that is likely part of the reason for growing cases.

Cincinnati recently started providing “pop up” sites in which cost-free testing for COVID-19 is provided to residents in underserved areas. It’s a strategy happening throughout Ohio. 

Over the weekend, the health department managed a pop-up site in Northside. CityLink Center at 800 Bank St. is the latest site for the testing, which started Tuesday and continues from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday.

Amin said that a sudden surge could also be from reporting. On some days, she said, the city’s received a large number of lab reports in a day, all of which go to the daily count.

She added that, as an epidemiologist, she finds it best to look at the trends “for a longer period of time,” though she confirmed that the rise in cases is real.

Price Hill, with the ZIP code 45205, has had a significant rise in cases, Amin said.

But she added that, in looking at the ZIP code areas, health experts zero in on whether cases may be occurring among families or specific sites such as a workplace or if there’s more of a spread in positive COVID-19 cases. She said Price Hill seems to have an outbreak.

Moore encouraged people to get tested when they can. Some people are symptom-free, she noted, but if they learn they are or were positive for COVID-19, they might realize that behaviors need to change to prevent the spread of the disease.

Deaths from or likely from the illness that attacks the respiratory system remained flat during the latest uptick, city data show. Total deaths in Cincinnati held at 60 the last several days.

The rise in new cases coincides with a surge in COVID-19 cases in Southwest Ohio. Gov. Mike DeWine pointed out specific surges in Hamilton County, as well as Warren, on Thursday in a press briefing, and cases continued to increase in Hamilton County over the weekend.

Health officials are urging people to practice prevention strategies:

• Wash hands frequently.
• Wear a mask in public.
• Stay at least 6 feet apart from others.
• Cover your mouth and nose while coughing and sneezing.    

If you have symptoms of COVID-19, stay home and call your doctor. Symptoms include:

• Dry cough.
• Fever.
• Sudden inability to smell and taste.

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