Ohio Department of Health visiting Jefferson County homes for COVID-19 prevalence study

STEUBENVILLE -- Ohio Department of Health personnel will be in Toronto until July 29, interviewing a sampling of residents throughout the region for a COVID-19 prevalence study.

ODH, in partnership with Ohio State University, plans to survey about 1,200 adults across the state for current and past COVID-19 infection.

Households have been chosen at random, and were notified by postcard and letter when they can expect a trained project team to visit their home. During the in-person visit, one adult in the household is randomly selected for participation. Since it's purely voluntary, householders can opt out at any point, including the project team visit.

Jefferson County Health Commissioner Nicole Balakos said teams have been in the community since July 17.

"Any households (that do) not want to participate had the option to opt out of the survey," Balakos said. "The staff taking the samples will be randomly visiting homes (that) did not opt out of the (study) to ask one adult for both a swab to determine active COVID-19 and a blood sample to determine antibodies. An interview history will also be taken to identify if the person believes he or she may have been ill and the time period."

Balakos said the team is working out of Toronto.

"The central location of Jefferson County allowed us to partner with ODH to provide space as a home base for the team to reach multiple counties from here," she said. "Though the health department did not have space in the Towers and was not able to answer the request for space, Toronto stepped in and filled the void. Both the local TEMS and the Mayor's Office volunteered space rather than turn the service and tourism dollars for two weeks away. We appreciate the partnership of Toronto."

ODH said participants will be interviewed about their health, background and behaviors, have blood drawn and a nasal swab sample. The samples will be tested at the ODH laboratory, LabCorp and OSU to assess both current coronavirus infection and evidence of past infection (antibodies). The results will be shared with the individuals tested -- typically within four days if the nasal swab comes back positive, and within two weeks if the tests come back negative. Blood test results will be shared within two weeks whether they show antibodies.

There is no fee for participants, and the survey team was tested for past and current coronavirus infection before being dispatched into the community.

The survey sponsors want to see how many people currently have COVID-19, and how many people had been infected in the past.

"The results of this study will help us understand the spread and impact of COVID-19 throughout the state," the survey team told residents in the letter. "Additionally, this information may allow state agencies to prepare for the distribution of resources to meet local needs."

Balakos said the survey will help the health community better understand the coronavirus crisis in Ohio.

"As we have seen many folks talk about incidents of illness with COVID-19-like symptoms, the prevalence study will use interviews and lab results to gather data on when and where Ohioans may have been exposed to COVID-19," she said. "These cases may have been possibly in late 2019 and 2020. This randomized study is our first look across all 88 Ohio counties at residents' health data to determine potential undiagnosed community spread. This data can be critical as much more research is done about immunity and other COVID-19 information."