Newly reported Ohio COVID cases dip below 2,000 Sunday

There were 1,977 new COVID-19 cases added to the Ohio Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard Sunday.

This marks a decrease from 2,460 Saturday and 2,732 Friday.

Reported cases tend to decrease over the weekend, and the 21-day trend continues to be higher than several weeks ago. Case numbers reached 3,393 Thursday, increasing from 543 on July 26.

There were 40 new hospitalizations reported across the state, four ICU admissions and no new deaths.

Health officials say the more-contagious Delta variant is causing an increase in cases across the state.

Vaccination rates are also ticking up. There were 9,145 new vaccination-starts reported Sunday. A total of 5.9 million Ohioans have gotten at least the first jab — 50.6% of the population. This includes 59.2% of those over age 12 and 61.6% of those over 18.

Health officials say the vaccine helps protect someone from getting COVID, and in the case of “breakthrough” cases makes it less severe. Among those fully vaccinated, 362 people have been hospitalized and 67 died since Jan. 1. In that same time period, there were 19,028 hospitalizations and 6,910 deaths among those not fully vaccinated, according to state data.

The day a death is reported does not reflect the date of death. Data may fluctuate because other states do not regularly report death certificate data to Ohio’s Bureau of Vital Statistic.

Visit coronavirus.ohio.gov for information about how to get a COVID-19 vaccine.