LUCAS COUNTY, Ohio — Lucas County is seeing a slight increase in COVID-19 cases, but is still considered to have a low incidence rate, according to criteria from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"We don't want any disease in the community, and that really does include COVID. We're trying to make sure that we make every effort to combat it so that we don't have it in our community," Lucas County Health Commissioner Eric Zgodzinski said. "We know it's going to be here. Just like the flu every year is here, COVID is here. Take those precautions."
Lucas County is averaging just over 22 cases per day. Two weeks ago, the daily average was nearly 14.
But, Dr. Brian Kaminski with ProMedica explained the county is by no means seeing the levels it had in previous waves.
"It feels a little concerning because we're not on that continued downward trend," he said. "It's just a minor uptick at this point compared to previous surges that we've seen."
Kaminski said the increase could be due to the recent Easter holiday as well as a drop in people taking precautions.
"We've more or less reduced our advisories and precautions across the country at this point to where most people are about their daily lives in a normal fashion without staying away or staying out of group activities," he said.
Zgodzinski said vaccination rates have been slow, but with cases on the rise, he thinks that could change.
"We're coming out of that COVID atmosphere where we had a lot of cases. People were vaccinated, they were getting vaccinated, then we had this lull," he said. "I would imagine as we start seeing more cases, more people are going to want to get vaccinated or get a booster."
The Toledo-Lucas County Health Department continues to offer free walk-in vaccination clinics Monday - Friday from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.