7 COVID deaths reported in Mercer County

Celina schools will no longer conduct contact tracing

CELINA - Seven Mercer County residents have died and 177 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the county since last week, according to a county health department news release Wednesday.

In other news related to the pandemic, Celina City schools Superintendent Ken Schmiesing on Wednesday announced the district will no longer conduct contact tracing for buses, classrooms or masking status.

The new health department numbers reported Wednesday raise the county's cumulative death toll to 128 and cumulative number of cases to 7,711 since the pandemic began two years ago.

Mercer County Health District public information officer Paige Keysor said the seven newest deaths involved three fully vaccinated people, three unvaccinated people and one person without a record of vaccination.

Keysor said the fully vaccinated deaths involved a 92-year-old woman, an 81-year-old man and an 81-year old woman. The unvaccinated deaths involved a 70-year-old man, a 67-year-old man and a 66-year-old man. A 73-year-old man with no record of vaccination also died, Keysor said.

Keysor had said fully vaccinated refers to a completed primary series, such as two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Some fully vaccinated individuals may also have a booster, she had said.

Officials in the release also reported 10 known hospitalizations, a cumulative 1,733 probable cases and 7,257 people who have recovered. Of the overall cases, 249 are active, according to the release.

There also have been 314 reinfection cases of COVID-19. According to the Ohio Department of Health, 15,382 Mercer County residents have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 7,694 Mercer County residents have received a booster dose.

Of the residents who have been fully vaccinated, 38 were hospitalized with COVID-19 and have since recovered and 13 have died, according to the release.

Schmiesing in a letter about contact tracing said the Ohio Department of Health has said students who come into direct contact with an infected person can stay in a classroom, regardless of vaccination or masking status.

With that in mind, Schmiesing in the letter said the school district and the Mercer County Health District have interpreted the message to mean ODH does not think students should miss school because they are in quarantine, even though people who come into direct contact with someone with COVID-19 are recommended to stay home for five days after last exposure.

"Many times over the past month, since the time the quarantine period was changed from ten days to five days, the quarantine period had already lapsed before we had the information regarding a positive case to advise parents," Schmiesing wrote. "With the quicker spread of the latest COVID mutation, Omicron variant, the reality of contact tracing and having the ability to notify parents in a timely manner is not possible."

Schmiesing said parents and guardians can contact him with any questions about the change or any other school-related topic.

Mercer County continues to have a high rate of community transmission of the virus.

Mercer County has seen 658 cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days, down from last week's rate of 1,114 per 100,000 people. The county has a test positivity rate of 39.96%, up from 30.02% last week. The high test positivity rate means nearly two out of five people tested are positive for the virus.

The CDC defines a high transmission rate as 100 or more new cases per 100,000 people in a 7-day period or a test positivity rate of 10% or higher.

Officials in Wednesday's release continued to urge community members to consider getting vaccinated for COVID-19 and the flu, maintain good hygiene practices, stay home when sick, consider wearing a mask in indoor public places and avoid crowded indoor places to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other seasonal viruses.

The health district continues to offer appointments for COVID-19 and flu vaccines. Individuals can call 419-586-3251 option two to ask questions or schedule an appointment. Additional vaccine information can be found at mchdohio.org.

As of Wednesday night, ODH reported a cumulative 2,595,504 confirmed and probable cases, 108,291 hospitalizations and 33,537 Ohio resident deaths since the pandemic began.

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