The announcement that President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus came just 10 days after his rally at an airport outside of Toledo, but local experts don’t believe it’s cause for concern here.
Health officials in Lucas, Wood, and Fulton counties say there is no evidence of surging cases related to the Sept. 21 rally at the Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport, despite the event drawing more than 1,000 attendees, the majority of them not wearing face masks.
“We’re not aware of any cases connected to the Trump campaign’s recent visit,” Alex Aspacher, spokesman for the Wood County Health Department, said.
Toledo-Lucas County Health Commissioner Eric Zgodzinski and Fulton County Health Commissioner Kim Cupp also said they’re not aware of any positive cases stemming from the mass gathering.
Mr. Zgodzinski said he believes, based on the timeline, that it’s unlikely the President would have contracted the virus during his visit to Toledo. It’s also not likely he would have been ill when he came here, he said.
Typically, contact tracing focuses on potential exposures 48 hours before an individual is tested, or in some cases from when they began showing symptoms of coronavirus. The White House did not report the President showing “mild symptoms” of the virus until early Friday, putting the Toledo rally well outside the two-day tracing period.
“Ten days out there’s probably not much concern with those individuals who were at the Trump rally, because I don’t know how much interaction they had with him anyway,” Mr. Zgodzinski said.
Still, public health data on new coronavirus cases since Sept. 21 suggests all three counties saw spikes in the number of people reporting coronavirus symptoms on Sept. 24.
“Illness onset” data on the state’s coronavirus dashboard, for example, showed:
- Lucas County had 31 cases that day, slightly higher than what was reported daily between Sept. 21 - Oct. 1.
- Wood County had 62 cases, nearly double any other day in that period.
- Fulton County had 46 cases, five times higher than any other day on record since the state began keeping the data on March 20.
Dayton, where the President also held a rally hours before flying to Toledo, did not see similar spikes following Sept. 21, state data shows. Since the rally, Montgomery County has not had more than 10 persons reporting onset of illness in a day.
For northwest Ohio, that equals 139 individuals with coronavirus reported feeling ill three days after the President’s rally, which drew support from across the region and likely even out of state. But health departments say there is no evidence that any of the sick were traced back to the rally.
In Lucas County, Mr. Zgodzinski attributed increases in infections to some schools resuming in-person instruction, mass gatherings such as weddings or parties, and even crowded restaurants and bars.
Wood County’s increases have been in young adults and children, particularly those connected to Bowling Green State University, Mr. Aspacher said.
In Fulton County, Ms. Cupp said their spike was mainly traced back to long-term care facilities.
“But we rely on what people are sharing,” she said, referring to the honor system that asks residents to be truthful with contact tracers about where they were and who they were with while potentially infectious.
All health officials agree, though, that it may be too early to determine whether or not the rally had an impact on local case numbers.
Because the state’s “cases” chart tracks by onset of illness, rather than day reported, there’s often a lag in when cases are counted, Ohio Department of Health spokesman Melanie Amato said. The state may receive 1,400 confirmed cases reports today, she explained, but their staff will then have to sort those cases to count them by their respective onset of illness.
“We will be able to look at that data in another week or so,” she said. “That’s when we can see when people were actually sick, not when they reported it to state.”
Mr. Zgodzinski agreed, adding that rally attendees still have a few more days before they’re out of the recommended 14-day quarantine period when symptoms would most likely present, if they do at all.
“We don’t know how many people are asymptomatic out there,” he said.
Regardless, health officials say the numbers and the President’s illness underscore the importance of efforts to mitigate the virus’ spread by wearing a mask, social distancing, avoiding large gatherings, and observing proper hand-washing hygiene.
“It’s challenging but it is necessary to keep this virus from spreading more,” Ms. Cupp said.
That message has at times been at odds with statements from the President, who as recent as Tuesday criticized Mr. Biden for wearing a mask.
“I don’t wear masks like him,” Mr. Trump said of his opponent. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from me, and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”
Supporters at the President’s Toledo rally seemed to be following the President’s lead, booing and shouting “Tyrant!” at Lt. Gov. Jon Husted when he mentioned manufacturing Trump-specific face masks.
But Lucas County GOP chairman Mark Wagoner, Jr., pointed out that the Trump campaign was handing out masks at the rally and the local party has “had a social distancing and mask policy in place since March.”
Anyone entering headquarters must wear a mask, seating is socially distanced, meetings are conducted by Zoom, and the party canceled its annual Lincoln Day Dinner because of safety concerns, he said.
The GOP did host a watch party during Tuesday’s debate.
On the same day that President Trump tested positive, Ohio reported one of its worst days so far in its fight against coronavirus.
The state reported 88 deaths, more than triple the average seen over the last three weeks. In all, 4,905 Ohioans have died from the virus since March.
The number of new cases reported Friday spiked again as well to 1,495. It pulled the 21-day average up to 1,023 and contributed to total of 156,809.
New hospitalizations numbered 82, compared to the average of 69, while there were 15 new admissions to intensive-care units, also above the average of 11.
Increases in hospitalizations and deaths can lag reported new infections by weeks.
Lucas County saw a spike in cases, up by 51 to a total of 7,332. It added three more deaths for a total of 366.
Wood County added five deaths for a total of 87. It reported 66 more cases for a total of 2,068.
Full compliance with all of the recommendations is the best way to avoid new coronavirus cases and deaths, Mr. Zgodzinski stressed.
“It goes back to what I’ve been saying all along, and I’ll keep on stressing this. … It really is up to each one of us to keep our numbers low so we can go out to restaurants and bars and we can keep on going to school and we can have those sporting events and we can do the things we want to do.”
Staff writer Jim Provance contributed to this report.
First Published October 2, 2020, 10:57 p.m.
