SUMMIT COUNTY, Ohio — As COVID-19 transmission surges across the nation, health officials are working to keep up with the increasing positivity rate in Summit County.

With 2,197.7 positive cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people, Summit County currently ranks third in the state for high infection rates, just behind Lake County, which counts 2,325.9 positive cases per 100,000 people.

Cuyahoga County is in the No. 1 position in Ohio with 3,023.0 positive cases per 100,000 residents, the state reported on Thursday.

What You Need To Know

  • Cuyahoga, Lake and Summit counties ranked top three in Ohio for COVID-19 cases

  • Summit County’s positivity rate is 30.6%, up from 22.6% last week

  • Summit County Public Health opened a drive-thru testing site with the help of the Ohio National Guard

  • The tests are by appointment only from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and can be made online

The New York Times Covid tracker reported on Jan. 6 that the number of positive tests and hospitalizations in Summit County are extremely high, and yet cases are likely “significantly undercounted.”

With home tests difficult to come by, Summit County Public Health opened a drive-thru testing site with the help of the Ohio National Guard.

The test site operates seven days a week at the Summa Health System corporate headquarters, located at 1077 Gorge Blvd. in North Akron.  

The tests are by appointment only from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and can be made online. Anyone wanting to get tested should keep checking back on the website, as appointments continuously open, officials said.

With the highly contagious omicron COVID-19 variant currently dominant, the virus is spreading easily, said Summit County Health Commissioner Donna Skoda.

Summit County’s positivity rate is 30.6%, up from 22.6% last week.

“People are most contagious those two days before you get sick, and usually two or three days after, so you have a lot of people who are just kind of in that little zone where they're thinking ‘I have a little bit of sniffle,’ and don't realize they could really be sick,” Skoda said.

Getting vaccinated is the first line of defense, she said.

“The next is to wear a mask and be careful when you’re out, when you're in stores,” she said. “Avoid close contact with people because you don't know if they're sick or not. If you are sick, if you have that plugged-up head, if you don't feel good, just stay home.”

It is a kind of “perfect storm,” she said, because many vaccinated, but not-yet-boosted residents, have waning immunity, which when combined with holiday gatherings has pushed up infection rates.

“It’s been very, very difficult, at best to try to manage it,” Skoda said. “Then, there's the whole hospital aspect where we have hospitals that are very, very full and crowded, and we have the threat and worry that if people continue to get sick, it’ll get worse.”

That trend is playing out across Ohio. As of Jan. 5, Ohio hospitals counted 6,457 COVID-19 positive patients, who have pushed hospitals nearly to capacity for in-patient beds and ICU beds, according to the state.

Another aspect that’s influencing the rapid spread of the virus is the perception that the omicron variant doesn’t make people as sick as the delta variant did, Skoda said.

“But you don't know from a test whether you have omicron,” she said. “So, it could make you really sick. We still have people in the hospital, getting really sick.”

The nest variant could be more severe, but there’s not way to know, she said.

Officials are urging everyone, regardless of vaccination status, to wear masks and practice social distancing.