Health officials share tips for staying healthy at the fair

By CALLAN PUGH 

City editor 

With the coronavirus pandemic rearing up again and the Wyandot County fair set to start Monday morning, local health officials offered a few tips for fairgoers to follow to keep themselves and their loved ones healthy and safe, while still enjoying community tradition. 

Wyandot County Public Health Director of Nursing Jamie Crawford said the most important thing is staying home and away from the fair when sick. 

“I know that that’s hard, because a lot of people are like, ‘this is the one thing that I have been looking forward to the entire year — I don’t want to stay home because I’m not feeling well,’’’ Crawford said. “But with the delta variant being the most prominent one that’s around right now, it’s very, very contagious. So even if somebody feels well enough to be up and around, if they would happen to have COVID, the delta variant, what have you — there’s a good chance they’re going to get a lot of people sick just by going to the fair.” 

Crawford said that often people picture feeling ill with COVID as being on their deathbed, but the virus can present with much milder symptoms. 

“A lot of what we’ve been seeing lately is, it’s a lot of people who feel as if they have allergy symptoms, or they just have a stuffy nose, or they’re like ‘oh, maybe my throat was a little sore this morning, but maybe I slept with my window open,’” Crawford explained. “They end up feeling like that and then somebody’s like, ‘Hey, maybe you should get tested for COVID,’ and then they end up coming back positive. So, there’s a lot of things like that, that I don’t think people realize — that even though they have minimal symptoms, and it might typically be allergies or the weather change, or something like that, there’s also a good chance that it could be COVID.” 

Crawford also suggested that both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals strongly consider wearing masks when indoors at the fair due to the high rates of transmission within the county. 

“That’s actually something that the CDC recommends as well, regardless of vaccination status, they say that it’s a good idea to wear a mask,” Crawford said. 

Unvaccinated people, Crawford said, should additionally consider wearing masks outdoors where social distancing isn’t possible. 

Director of Environmental Health Jeff Ritchey said the health department is limited by Ohio’s Senate Bill 22 in issuing mask orders for particular events. 

“[It’s] one of the reasons, I think, that you haven’t seen the [Ohio Department of Health] go through and reissue any types of orders for that,” Ritchey explained. 

Crawford said she believes that mandates possibly would help push some individuals to wear masks. She said there are those who are choosing not to wear masks because there isn’t a health order telling them to do so, but who would wear them if there was a mandate in place saying it was the right thing to do. But said she understands that some people would be resistant to mask wearing no matter what. 

“I think that [putting in mandates] would cause some more people to wear masks but it wouldn’t be 100% — it’s never been 100% for the mask wearing,” Crawford said. “But I do think you’d see more, just not the amount in my mind that would be the perfect number.” 

Concerning, Ritchey and Crawford agreed, is the current surge in cases and the different demographics compared to the surges seen at the end of 2020. Ritchey said the current case rates seem indicate the majority of cases seen in the last two weeks, 57, out of 99,  are in individuals ages 29 and younger. Additionally, the remaining cases in other age groups are no more than half that number, with those ages 30-39 registering 16 cases. 

“[These younger populations] were the bulk of our cases the last two weeks and you didn’t have that during the fair last year I don’t think,” Ritchey said. “So what we’re going to see is a lot of these kids that have a potential to be ill and they’re all going to get off school and socialize at the fair like they always have in the past and they’re not going to wear masks. I’d hate to see that we might see a surge after just because of that. 

“I think the demographics of who has the most cases right now is a lot different than what we had previously. … I know that the schools are struggling right now anyway, and I’d hate to see us have more spread in those age groups that potentially affect schools, because we want to make sure that they stay in school learning as much as possible.” 

Crawford also noted that in 2020’s big surge, a lot of the cases were found in places such as nursing homes. Currently, the majority of cases don’t seem to have common threads to indicate where the virus is coming from, meaning community spread is occurring and prevalent.

Ritchey said the health care sector is feeling the effects of the surge, which is additionally concerning.

“[People say], ‘Well my kid shouldn’t have to wear a mask, they’re not going to be hospitalized,’” Ritchey said. “Well, we’re looking at it also [as] the more individuals that get infected, even if they’re hospitalized or not, the more spread we have at one time in the community, the bigger chance we have that our health care industry is going to be impacted by a surge. Most people I don’t think, think that way.

“We knew from day one that one of the goals was to slow the spread, so we don’t overwhelm the hospital system.”

Fairgoers also should be sure to wash their hands frequently, which Crawford noted is important with or without COVID. 

“[For people who are going to the fair], we highly recommend they protect themselves and their families,” Ritchey said. “If you are going to get together, do it safely. And particularly if you have people that have weak immune systems or stuff like that. … Have fun at the fair, be safe and protect yourself.” 

What is Wyandot seeing?

Currently there are fewer cases among older populations — however older individuals and those with preexisting conditions are more likely to be hospitalized because of contracting COVID, according to Ritchey. He explained that those 70 and older are much more highly vaccinated, so there seems to be fewer cases in recent weeks in the county among those populations. However, of the cases that do occur among these individuals, COVID patients are more likely to end up in the hospital.

“If you’re older [or] you have preexisting health condition that makes you more susceptible to respiratory issues, we would highly encourage them to really think about wearing a mask,” Ritchey said. “Particularly, if you have a preexisting health condition — because we’ve had some young individuals that have had health conditions.”

Additionally, Crawford said, those younger populations currently are making up most of the cases in the county. However, the ratio of younger people who test positive compared to those who require hospitalization remains lower than that of older populations in Wyandot County.

The people most likely to be hospitalized in the younger populations in Wyandot County, Crawford said, are those who are unvaccinated. The younger populations in Wyandot County also have lower vaccination rates than those among older populations.

Those who are unvaccinated seem to be getting sicker than those who are not,” Crawford said.

“The sicker people that we’re seeing right now are the unvaccinated population,” Crawford said. “A lot of the vaccinated people (who test positive for COVID) that you talk to, talk about the allergy symptom feeling, or like the felt like they had a slight cold or things of those sorts. Those people are vaccinated, so they’re not seeming to get as sick. 

“But then there’s a lot of people who are unvaccinated that we talk to and if they’re not hospitalized they’re like, ‘That was the sickest I’ve been in a long time,’ or ‘That felt like I had a really bad version of the flu,’ things like that, where they’re seeming to be sicker or have a lot more symptoms than those that were vaccinated.” 

Crawford explained that the vaccine has been shown to help keep people from having severe cases of COVID-19, even if they still are able to contract the virus.

“Even though they may still get fully vaccinated and end up with COVID at some point, those are going to be the people that are most likely aren’t going to be in the hospital and taking that room and bed and using ventilators and things of those sorts,” Crawford explained. “I know it’s not perfect. Every now and then a vaccinated person is going to get super sick. … But theoretically, the vaccine should help keep the health care system a little more at ease, because people won’t be getting as sick.”

Those interested in getting vaccinated may attend Wyandot County Public Health’s weekly walk-in COVID-19 vaccine clinic to receive the Moderna vaccine. Clinics are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays. 

The health department will not have staff at its booth in the Merchants Building at the fair due to ongoing situation with coronavirus, but will have helpful information available for community members to take home.