Due to winter weather, the clinic will be hosted indoors with social distancing protocols in place, according to the CCCHD. No appointment or doctor’s order is needed.
The county has struggled to keep up with testing after case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths all started to surge in October. Since then, the CCCHD and ODH have held a handful of pop-up testing clinics in an effort to relieve some of the stress on individual clinics.
The last clinic was held on Nov. 15 in the parking lot of Springfield High School, where cars wrapped the Home Road entrance for over four hours. Patterson called the turnout, “a heck of a response.”
The health district also opened its free semi-permanent site, located inside Mercy Health Springfield’s Occupational Health building at 2501 E. High St. in Springfield, on Nov. 16. It’s still not enough, Patterson said.
“They already have more phone calls than they can take,” Patterson said. “The phone rings all day long.”
Due to clinic backups, Patterson said the health district is mostly focusing on testing those “who have been exposed,” to someone COVID-19 positive. Because of that, the clinic’s daily positivity rates are ranging from 19 to 32%.
“That’s one in five to one in three tests that are coming back positive,” Patterson said. “That’s not a general sample of the public, but that’s people who have been exposed and requested to be tested. That should give you an idea about the spread of this.”
Ohio’s seven-day case positivity was 18.9% as of Monday, according to ODH. It’s the highest seven-day positivity rate for the state since April 24, and double the 7% weekly rate reported on Nov. 1.
Clark County had reported a total of 5,907 cases, 137 deaths and five probable deaths of the coronavirus as of Wednesday, according to ODH. Champaign County had 1,174 cases, six deaths and three probable deaths.
Ohio recorded more than 100 deaths attributed to COVID-19 for the second straight day on Wednesday, reporting 123. The state reported 119 deaths Tuesday bringing Ohio’s total to 6,671, according to ODH.
Over the last 21 days, the state has reported an average of 50 deaths a day.
Between Tuesday and Wednesday, the state recorded 7,835 new cases. In total, Ohio reported 437,928 cases and 6,671 deaths on Wednesday.
Upcoming free COVID-19 testing:
1-5 p.m., Sunday
Clark County Fairgrounds
4401 S. Charleston Pike, Springfield
No appointment required. The clinic will be socially distanced and indoors due to the cold weather.
Facts & Figures:
8: Number of COVID-19 testing clinics in Clark County
1: Semi-permanent clinic operated by Clark County Combined Health District
5,907: Total COVID-19 cases reported in Clark County
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