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Summit County’s incidence rate has slowly but steadily climbed throughout July. Despite the rising case numbers, health officials have stressed that Summit County will not move to a more restrictive level unless hospital capacity is threatened.
Hospital occupancy the percentage of total beds occupied at St. Anthony Summit Medical Center is currently 29.4%. There are 34 in-patient beds at the medical center. The goal, according to Summit County Public Health
, is to keep bed occupancy at 80% or lower. The highest occupancy the hospital has reached so far in July is 41.9%.
Summit County’s seven-day cumulative incidence rate reached blue levels on July 14, meaning there were over 100 new positive cases per 100,000 residents over the previous week. On Thursday, July 22, the incidence rate was 122.68.
Officials say county ranks 3rd in the state for 1st doses thanks to volunteers Summit County currently ranks third in the state for having the highest percentage of the population vaccinated with at least one.
Photo by Ashley Low
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with the latest incidence rate data as of 4 p.m. Friday.
Early this week, Summit County officially hit level green metrics with an incidence rate of 100 or fewer new cases per 100,000 residents. If the county’s incidence rate remains below that threshold, it would move into level green restrictions Wednesday, May 5.
The new public health order maintains that the county can move into level green metrics if the area reaches an incidence rate of zero to 100 cases for seven days or if the county gets 70% of its population vaccinated. As of Friday, April 30, the incidence rate is 74.2 cases per 100,000 people.
Should Summit County offer incentives to residents as a way to push vaccination efforts, and if so, what would that look like?
The Board of Health contemplated that question at its meeting Tuesday, April 27. After Public Health Director Amy Wineland concluded her presentation on the county’s vaccination efforts, Summit County Commissioner Elisabeth Lawrence suggested offering incentives as a way to encourage residents to get vaccinated.
During Wineland’s presentation, she reported that Summit County is third in the state for getting its population immunized with one or more doses. Currently, 49.6% of Summit County’s residents are fully vaccinated, with 71.5% vaccinated with at least one dose. While these numbers look promising, Lawrence said she was worried about the percentage of vaccinated residents in the 20-29 age group.