COLUMBUS, Ohio — COVID-19 cases in Ohio continue to surge. In the last 24 hours, 20,320 new cases have been reported and nearly 600 people have been hospitalized, according to numbers released by the Ohio Department of Health.
During an afternoon news conference with Gov. Mike DeWine, the Ohio National Guard, and leaders of hospital systems around the state, ODH Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said those on the front lines of the pandemic have painted it as a "very serious situation."
"We're looking now at an impact of COVID-19 that is unlike anything we've seen before in this pandemic," Vanderhoff said.
Key Metrics
Wednesday's cases are nearly double the 21-day reported average.
With more Ohioans vaccinated each month, death rates compared to case numbers from a year ago have remained relatively low.
No new deaths were reported today. The state has changed 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.
Hospitalizations
The ODH reported 592 new hospitalizations today, with 64 ICU admissions. There are currently 5,356 COVID-19 patients in Ohio's hospitals, and 1,228 COVID-19 patients in the ICU.
Patients with COVID are currently occupying 21% of the state's hospital beds, according to ODH. Non-COVID-positive patients account for 61%, leaving 18% of beds currently available. COVID patients make up 26.44% of the state's ICU beds, non-COVID patients are occupying 55.02% of ICU beds, and 18.54% of ICU beds are currently open.
Vaccinations
To date, a COVID-19 vaccine has been started in 6,972,058 people in Ohio, which is 59.2% of the state's population. A vaccine has been started in 10,778 people in the last 24 hours.
A COVID-19 vaccination has been completed in a total of 6,416,639 people, which is 54.89% of the state's population. In the last 24 hours, the vaccine has been completed in 7,517 people.
This chart shows the vaccination rates of each Ohio county:
More than 2.6 million Ohioans ages 12 and up have received an additional dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
You can view updated coronavirus data on our website here, and on the Ohio Department of Health website here.
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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