Illnesses on the rise as students settle into school, indoor gatherings increase

DAYTON, Ohio ( WDTN ) — With kids back in school, local doctors say they are seeing more positive COVID cases. They anticipate this will continue to increase as we enter the season of indoor holiday gatherings and parties.

Doctors say that they are seeing more mild forms of COVID that present symptoms like a common cold. But they also say the disease still has deadly potential and it’s important to be cautious if you do catch COVID.

“COVID still here. We’re still seeing it. It’s not as not as scary as it once was, which is good, but it’s but it’s still around,” said Dr. Joseph Allen, regional medical director with Premier Health.

Experts recommend staying home until you figure out what you have whether that be COVID or a common cold.

2 NEWS reviewed the state’s most recent data on 84,000 confirmed COVID cases. Ohio reports more than 2,000 hospitalizations for COVID over the last three months.

Montgomery, Hamilton, and Butler are the most impacted counties in the Miami Valley. Each report thousands of cases and 38 COVID-related deaths over the last three months.

“So we started to see an upswing in COVID cases toward the end of the summer. And then it seemed to plateau and drop a little bit, but it seems to be picking up again,” said Dr. Nancy Pook, medical director at Kettering Health.

Doctors say they are not seeing as many severe cases of COVID, but recommend being cautious if you get COVID around the holidays.

“We certainly don’t want to restrict family gatherings, birthday parties, all of that kind of thing. But when it comes to protecting someone’s health, if you know you’re sick, you need to make you have to have some conversations to make some decisions,” said Pook.

With the recent return of the program, you can now continue to get free COVID tests sent to your home through COVIDtests.gov .

“Also, we want to remind people that the federal government is now bringing back the program of offering free COVID tests to be mailed to your home,” said Dan Suffoletto, Public Health Dayton and Montgomery County.

Health professionals also recommend the COVID vaccine, especially if you are an older person or immunocompromised.

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