Coronavirus: Hospitalizations pass 43,000 since the beginning of the pandemic

People wait in line at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds for free coronavirus testing on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. STAFF/MARSHALL GORBY

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People wait in line at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds for free coronavirus testing on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. STAFF/MARSHALL GORBY

Yesterday, Ohio passed the milestone of 10,000 deaths from coronavirus since March. Today, the state passed 43,000 hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic. 241 people were hospitalized today, bringing the total to 43,048.

Currently, 3,742 people are hospitalized in Ohio for coronavirus, with 934 intensive care unit admissions. In southwest Ohio, 1,030 people are currently hospitalized, with 264 people currently in the ICU.

In the past 24 hours, 7,065 new cases and 78 new deaths were reported, bringing total cases to 821,507 and deaths to 10,135, the Ohio Department of Health reported. The current average for cases is 7,469 cases a day and the death average sits at 79 people a day.

The global death toll from COVID-19 topped 2 million Friday, crossing the threshold amid a vaccine rollout so immense but so uneven that in some countries there is real hope of vanquishing the outbreak, while in other, less-developed parts of the world, it seems a far-off dream.

The numbing figure was reached just over a year after the coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The number of dead, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Brussels, Mecca, Minsk or Vienna. It is roughly equivalent to the Cleveland metropolitan area or the entire state of Nebraska.

“There’s been a terrible amount of death,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, a pandemic expert and dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health. At the same time, he said, “our scientific community has also done extraordinary work.”

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