Lake County's Response To Rising COVID-19 Cases

By Rachel Rood

Published November 30, 2020 at 3:19 PM EST

We hear from leaders of Lake County on their response to the pandemic. [Maridav/shutterstock]

According to a Cleveland.com analysis last week, “Ohio’s coronavirus case total has surged so much this fall, 1 in 32 residents statewide is now known to have contracted the virus, and most of them during just the last 5 weeks.”

The analysis also found that the total COVID-19 caseload has doubled from 181 thousand on Oct. to 363 thousand last week. And that may even be a smaller estimate than reality, since the state says it has fallen behind processing the records due to the overwhelming volume of cases. And while the total deaths only increased about 1000 during that time period, we may not see the full count for a few weeks from this surge.

And while we keep looking for signs that the surge is over, we may see even more cases days after people spent time with their families indoors over Thanksgiving.

Over the past eight months, we’ve focused a lot on how the pandemic is impacting counties like Cuyahoga and Summit, because they are the most populous in our region. But this morning, we want to focus on Lake County — which has the highest COVID-19 incidence rate in Northeast Ohio, and the third highest in the state. The day before Thanksgiving, Lake County moved to the highest level of the state’s public health advisory system, Level 4 or purple.

On The Sound of Ideas, we’ll start by hearing from Lake County officials about the surge and efforts to slow the spread.

Later in the hour, we'll talk about the trend of conservatives leaving companies like Twitter and Fox News for more right-wing outlets like Parler, One America News and NewsMax. Are we becoming even more polarized than we already were?

And at the end of the show, we’ll hear from a group of young sisters who started a pandemic-related business, for our Start-Up Kids segment.

-John Hamercheck, Commissioner, Lake County

-Ron Graham, Health Commissioner, Lake County General Health District

-Danielle Sarver Coombs, Ph.D., Professor, School of Media & Journalism, Kent State University

-Drew Harwell, Technology Reporter, The Washington Post

-Lauren Freiman, Mom

-Rayna Freiman, Sunshine Sisters Boutique

-Romi Freiman, Sunshine Sisters Boutique

-Moselle Freiman, Sunshine Sisters Boutique