SANDUSKY, Ohio — COVID-19 cases around the country are on the rise causing strain on hospitals. Erie County has seen a surge of cases since the beginning of November.

Erie County Health Commissioner Peter Schade said his organization is administering more than 100 tests per day.

"You know 125 cases a day — seven days a week has been, you know, that heightened amount we've really seen that amount grow since Thanksgiving, post-Thanksgiving,” Schade said. “So we did see an uptick from the holiday.”

Schade said the uptick in cases is being traced back to community spread, and as the holiday season continues, there's concern there could be another increase in cases. He said this is why people need to be careful and social distance.

"Our community members are bringing it home to their families. They're taking it to work,” he said. “You know we have to stress to our workmates we have to be careful. Don't go eat lunch with the girls or the guys that you normally hang with and are close to you. You have to be careful. You don't know who's walking around with this virus."

Erie County currently has 4,185 total cases. There have been 371 hospitalization and 88 deaths.

Right now, the area hospital is being impacted, but not necessarily because of the number of cases. Dr. Scott Campbell with Firelands Regional Health System said many of the physicians and nurses are out of work because they are sick with the virus.

"It is taxing our hospital. So, you know, starting about two weeks ago what we found was different than in the beginning,” Dr. Campbell said. “So in the beginning we had an influx of patients and our staff did really well. We were more short on PPE and supplies and things like that but what we're finding on this last surge, again about two weeks ago, was that we had a lot of our employees get COVID-19. And so we at one point had 10 ICU nurses out at one time along with an influx of, I think we maxed at 48 patients with COVID at our hospital."

Next week, both the public health district and Firelands are expected to receive shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Both Schade and Campbell said people should continue to social distance, wash their hands, and wear their masks to help keep the virus from continuing to spread in the community.

The Sandusky County Public Health Department did not respond to a request to learn more about its increasing cases.