TOLEDO, Ohio — There are a lot of questions following the new CDC mask guidance that recommends even vaccinated people return to wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where the delta variant of the coronavirus is fueling infection surges.
So we're taking a closer look at what it means for counties in our area after health officials say they are seeing a COVID surge climbing right here in Northwest Ohio.
"[There's] a rapid increase in the number of cases," said Dr. James Tita, the Chief Medical Officer for Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center. "So one person may spread to another person, and then you have two people that are infected. And they each spread to a person, and then you have four people infected."
Dr. Tita says he wasn't surprised to hear the CDC recommend vaccinated people wear masks indoors.
That's for parts of the country with areas of "substantial" and "high" transmission. Doctors say you can still spread COVID, even if you're fully vaccinated.
"I think what we're going to see are pockets of infection. So communities where the vaccination rates are low, we will see the surges be much more localized than necessarily wide-spread," said Dr. Tita.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this is where some of our counties stand with the level of community transmission:
- Lucas, Monroe, and Sandusky are all in the yellow, which is considered Moderate.
- Williams, Fulton, and Henry Counties are in orange, which is considered substantial community spread. This means more people are spreading COVID cases in these counties.
The Ohio Department of Health reported just over 1,300 new cases in the past 24 hours.
The last time that happened was back in May.
"The worry is that we could be on a path to get to that level again, and so that's why you want to intervene early. So we don't get to that point," said Dr. Tita.
Doctors must now rely on the guidance of the numbers they are seeing and the science.
Dr. Tita says the key to slowing the surge down is more vaccinations and listening to what public health authorities are advising in our area.