“Our hospitals in recent days have seen record numbers of patients hospitalized with COVID-19, the vast majority of them unvaccinated,” read a statement on GDAHA’s Facebook page Thursday. “Help us preserve critical hospital capacity by getting your COVID-19 vaccine or booster now.”
While hospitalizations have started declining in Ohio and in the Cleveland area, they haven’t dropped off in Southwest and Western Ohio.
Southwest and West Central Ohio had 1,620 people hospitalized with COVID as of Thursday, according to the Ohio Department of Health. It’s a 1% decrease compared to a week ago, but has increased 39% over the past three weeks, according to the Ohio Hospital Association.
ICU admissions are also on the rise. The state health department reported 316 COVID patients were in Ohio’s ICUs Thursday. It’s an increase of 13% in the last week and 15% in the past three weeks, according to OHA.
Compared to 60 days ago, COVID inpatients are up 171% in the region with ICU patients increasing by 84%.
Overall in Ohio, COVID inpatients have decreased by 12% in the last week, but the figure is up 2% compared to three weeks ago and up 79% from 60 days ago. The state’s seen the number of ICU patients with COVID drop by 5% in the last week and 6% in the past three weeks, but it still is an increase of 35% compared to 60 days ago, according to OHA.
In the last day, Ohio added 508 daily hospitalizations and 39 ICU admissions, according to ODH. Over the last three weeks Ohio is averaging 368 COVID hospitalizations a day and 33 ICU admissions a day.
Ohio’s COVID incidence rate surpassed 2,100 cases per 100,000 people over the last two weeks. That’s approximately 21 times the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definition of a high incidence rate.
In previous weeks, the counties with the highest incidence rates were in Northern Ohio. Now, Southwest and South Central Ohio counties are climbing the list. Warren County was eighth overall with 3,123.6 cases per 100,000 people, according to ODH. Montgomery County was 11th and Clark County 13th with 2,989.5 and 2960.9 cases per 100,000 people respectively.
The following are the incidence rates for area counties, according to ODH:
- Warren County: 3,123.6 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people
- Montgomery County: 2,989.5 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people
- Clark County: 2,960.9 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people
- Butler County: 2,921.4 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people
- Miami County: 2,686.3 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people
- Greene County: 2,543.6 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people
- Darke County: 2,498.4 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people
- Champaign County: 2,034.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people
- Preble County: 1,866.3 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people
Ohio recorded 21,664 new cases in the last day. It’s averaging 22,161 cases day over the past 21 days.
Nearly 61% of Ohioans have started the COVID-19 vaccine, including 71.05% of adults and 64.79% of those 5 and older, according to ODH. As of Thursday, 55.93% of residents, including 65.68% of adults and 59.44% of people ages 5 and older, had finished the vaccine.
More than 7.12 million Ohioans have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 6.54 million people have completed it. About 3.13 million people in Ohio have received an additional vaccine dose, according to the state health department.
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