Ohio surpasses 10,000 daily COVID cases as state continues to add backlogged cases

Ohio reported more than 10,000 COVID-19 cases Wednesday as the state continues to add backlogged cases dating back to March 1 to its system.

Of the 10,588 cases recorded, approximately 840 cases were part of the backlog, according to the Ohio Department of Health. When excluding those cases, Ohio recorded 9,748 cases in the last day. It would be the highest number of cases reported in the last 21 days and only the third time in the last three weeks daily cases exceeded 9,000.

Ohio is averaging 7,019 cases a day in the last three weeks, according to ODH. Without the backlogged cases, the state’s seven-day average is 7,495.

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Due to manual reporting errors at two laboratories, ODH is adding approximately 7,699 backlogged cases. As a result, the daily case numbers for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday have been artificially inflated. The backlog includes new cases as well as updated information for previously recorded cases. The backlogged cases will be added with the appropriate illness onset date.

On Tuesday, about 1,725 of the 9,922 cases reported were from the backlog, according to the state health department.

As of Wednesday, 4,735 people were hospitalized with COVID in Ohio. The state had 1,177 ICU patients and 741 patients on ventilators with the virus.

One in five patients hospitalized in Ohio and one in three ICU patients have coronavirus, according to the Ohio Hospital Association. COVID has increased 9% in the last week and 46% in the last three weeks in the state’s hospitals. In ICUs, the virus is up 5% in the past week and 28% in the last three weeks.

Compared to 60 days ago, coronavirus has increased 56% in hospitals and 31% in ICUs, according to OHA.

In the last day, Ohio reported 486 hospitalizations and 50 ICU admissions, according to ODH. Its 21-day average is 294 hospitalizations and 30 ICU admissions a day.

More than 6.88 million Ohioans have started the COVID-19 vaccine as of Wednesday. Nearly 59% of residents have received at least one dose, including 69.28% of adults ad 62.6% of those 5 and older.

Almost 54.5% of Ohioans, including 64.45% of adults and 57.68% of residents 5 and older have finished the vaccine, according to ODH.

More than 6.34 million residents have completed the vaccine series and 2.2 million have received an additional dose of the vaccine.

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