Lincoln County has seen a slight rise in COVID-19 cases the past week and in all but two of them, the ill person had not been vaccinated against the virus.
Of the 22 new cases in the previous seven days, acting health department director Florence Pourtal said 20 people were not vaccinated and the remaining two had received one of two scheduled doses.
Of the 22 new cases, three people had to be hospitalized and one is in intensive care, Pourtal told county commissioners Monday.
Pourtal told commissioners Monday there were 13 new cases in Toledo, where just 40 percent of the adult population is vaccinated. The county’s overall rate is almost 69 percent.
She said the 22 recently confirmed cases involved 130 “close contacts” — people that county nurses had to get ahold of to warn about possibly quarantining, if they had not been vaccinated. The number of people the county was monitoring had dropped to 70 by Wednesday, Pourtal said.
The contact tracing, Pourtal told commissioners, was being hampered by “less cooperation” from people the county was attempting to interview.
“… interviews are a very important part of the process,” she said. “We know some people don’t want to be vaccinated, and this is their choice.”
When asked by Commissioner Doug Hunt what the health department was doing to encourage vaccinations in the Toledo area, Pourtal said mini-clinics they conducted had “very poor” turnout. The department might now turn to more of a media and billboard campaign, she said.
