Hamilton County’s COVID-19 numbers continue to improve to levels not seen since the early days of the pandemic, but a more contagious strain of the coronavirus – known as the Delta variant – could reverse the positive trends.
As of Friday, the Hamilton County Health Department reported a seven-day moving average of nine new COVID-19 cases per day, although testing levels are also the lowest they’ve been since last spring, when widespread testing first became available. There were 12 patients hospitalized in the county, nine of them from other counties.
Dr. Chris Young, chief of staff at Erlanger Health System, told the Erlanger board of trustees during a public meeting that the hospital had just one COVID-19 patient on Thursday.
“We’re thankful for that, but I think it’s important to say that the pandemic is not over,” Young said. “We have a virulent Delta variant that is in our community, and with a very low vaccination rate, I think it would be prudent to consider that we may have a resurgence in COVID come the fall and simply encourage anyone that can hear me now to encourage everyone that can to get vaccinated.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website states that coronavirus variants of concern circulating in the United States are B.1.1.7 – known as the variant first detected in the U.K. and now referred to as the alpha variant – B.1.351 (beta), P.1 (gamma), B.1.427 (epsilon), B.1.429 (epsilon) and B.1.617.2, which is the delta variant first detected in India.