COLUMBUS, Ohio — The latest surge of COVID-19 continues as the Ohio Department of Health reported more than 3,000 new COVID-19 cases in the state over the past 24 hours.
Since Tuesday, 3,303 COVID-19 cases have been reported by the state. This marks the fourth day in a week that the state has reported over 3,000 daily COVID cases, representing a significant and sustained surge in new cases of the disease.
Key Metrics
The number of new cases today is higher than the rolling 21-day average of daily cases, which is 2,033. These numbers include both cases confirmed by a viral test and cases that meet the CDC's definition of probable.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Gov. Mike DeWine pointed out that as recently as July 7 there were 17 cases per 100,000 people statewide reported over two weeks. That number has since gone up to 236 cases per 100,000 statewide over the past two weeks.
Many of the new cases reported in the latest surge of COVID-19 in Ohio have been the delta variant, which the state is reporting as the dominant strain across the state.
"The delta variant is more contagious and can make you sicker quicker. Delta spreads like wildfire, and it clearly seeks out anyone who is unvaccinated," said Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff in a press conference Tuesday. "Now, it is also clearly the dominant strain in Ohio, driving the troubling increases that we are currently seeing and will continue to see, and COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations."
Hospitalizations
The ODH reported 174 new hospitalizations today, with 12 ICU admissions. There are currently 1,641 COVID-19 patients in Ohio's hospitals, and 495 COVID-19 patients in the ICU.
Non-COVID patients are currently occupying 70.1% of the state's hospital beds, according to ODH. COVID-positive patients account for 6%, leaving 23.9% of beds currently available. COVID patients make up 10.25% of the state's ICU beds, non-COVID patients are occupying 62.19% of ICU beds, and 27.55% of ICU beds are currently open.
There have now been 20,648 coronavirus-related deaths across the state; no new deaths were reported today as the state changes the frequency in which mortality is reported.
As other states do not send the death certificates for Ohioans who die out of state to ODH's Bureau of Vital Statistics on a regular schedule, the mortality data provided by Ohio will continue to fluctuate and those deaths will be assigned to their appropriate dates.
Vaccinations
Here's how Ohio's vaccination rate compares to other states:
To date, the COVID-19 vaccine has been started in 5,947,520 people in Ohio, which is 50.88% of the state's population. The vaccine has been started in 12,073 people in the last 24 hours.
The COVID-19 vaccination has been completed in a total of 5,499,271 people, which is 47.05% of the state's population. In the last 24 hours, the vaccine has been completed in 9,034 people.
This chart shows the vaccination rates of each Ohio county:
Note: The charts above are updated from a variety of sources, and may or may not reflect the latest COVID-19 data released by the state. These charts are regularly updated with new data and may not reflect the statistics in the text of this story at the time it was published.
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