City of St. Clair County issued the following announcement on Oct. 19.
Over the last two months, the number of COVID-19 cases has been slowly trending upward. However, during the last two weeks, the increase has been more substantial with the average number of new cases per day jumping 55%. Due to the increase, the St. Clair County Health Department continues to strongly urge residents to adhere to proven public health prevention practices.
Currently, over 20% of cases are tied to gatherings and social events, which suggests that people are gathering and not following public health guidance. In addition, individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19, on average have each had close exposure to five other people. This is up from an average of two close exposures per person for each new case in August. At this rate, St. Clair County is on track to pass the number of cases we saw during the last case spike in July. If this trend holds, numbers could mirror those seen during the initial surge in April.
“We all want our community to be as healthy as possible and to ensure that our schools stay open for in-person learning and businesses can continue operations” stated Dr. Annette Mercatante, Medical Health Officer, St. Clair County Health Department. “As St. Clair County residents and as proud Americans, we know what we have to do to slow the spread of transmission because we did it before. We came together at the beginning of the pandemic and effectively drove down the case counts by wearing masks, maintaining six feet of social distance from others and practicing proper handwashing.”
Additionally, in order to slow the spread it is critically important for individuals contacted by the health department to answer the phone and respond to questions posed by public health nurses working on contact tracing. Please be honest in responses and remember that the St. Clair County Health Department never asks for sensitive information such as insurance, credit card, or social security information. The more forthright individuals are, the more successful we will be at containing this virus.
General questions can be directed to the St. Clair County COVID-19 Informational Hotline (810) 966- 4163 or email covid19@stclaircounty.org. COVID-19 information is also available on the health department website www.scchealth.co or follow us on social media @scchdmi.
Original source can be found here.
Source: City of St. Clair County
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