CLEVELAND — A COVID testing site run by the Ohio National Guard in Cleveland began turning away people three hours after it opened on Tuesday morning.
“The idea was to move that testing and move that patient load away from the emergency department and move it into that drive-thru site,” said Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr., the Ohio adjutant general from the Ohio National Guard. “And that the fact that it was so overwhelmed so quickly, I think is just a great indication of how extreme the situation is for the hospital there. So it was shut off, cut down, the line was cut down after three hours because it was disrupting traffic.”
A long line of vehicles had formed before the testing site opened at 9 a.m. A Cleveland Clinic spokesperson said people not yet in line around noon Tuesday were turned away so testing could be completed by 5 p.m.
Testing at the Cleveland Clinic campus site is scheduled to resume Wednesday morning.
The Ohio National Guard will have 150 medically trained and 900 non-medical members deployed. Maj. Gen Harris says he expects the initial rollout of support to be focused in the Cleveland and Akron area.
“I couldn't tell you that we're working with the Department of Health and who's also working with the hospital association to get the best data that they can and it's going to be fluid, we know especially as Omicron increases and moves around the state, we're building agility so that we can shift based on where the most demand is,” said Harris.
Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, has one of the highest COVID rates in the U.S. with 199 cases per 100,000 people, a sharp increase from two weeks ago.
The Ohio Department of Health on Tuesday reported a state record 12,502 daily COVID cases within the last 24 hours.