From Wuhan, China to 107 other countries, the Coronavirus, or COVID-19, has been spreading around the world and could be in your community. The United States has over 700 confirmed cases with 14 deaths, but as testing continues more and more cases keep popping up. One of the problems is that there are not enough test kits in communities. With this shortage, no one officially knows how many cases there actually are. In Ohio alone, there have been three confirmed cases: all in Cuyahoga county. With at least 15 others being tested and waiting results. Solon, Ohio also has confirmed two students have contracted COVID-19 and Westlake, Ohio has multiple suspected cases, but did not confirm any cases yet.
As of right now, the whole United States has only 24 deaths, with none coming from Ohio. But, the real problem is the infection rate of the disease. Officials are not quite sure how many people get infected by a person, but some speculate an average that every person infected will infect three or more people. They are now thinking this number could be higher since the virus is now airborne which means that the virus´s particles will be in the air when someone coughs or sneezes making it much easier to get sick.
Some real problems have come up as COVID-19 keeps spreading, especially in our communities around Lakewood. The first is that not enough people are being tested. There are a limited supply of test kits, and your symptoms may not show up for two weeks after the original infection which means that for two weeks you could be infecting others. Also, the test kits do not always give the right diagnosis. If there are not a lot of COVID-19 particles on the swab, it will not show up in the tests and the hospital may say you do not have the coronavirus. Senior Jake Wright says, ¨We need to take serious action because right now we are just waiting to be infected. Nothing is being done and we need a solution.¨ The only thing health officials say is to wash your hands and stay home if you feel sick. We need a solution now, it can’t wait.
