Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff noted on Thursday the Cleveland and Northern Ohio area, where the Omicron wave first hit in the state, is continuing to see a decrease in COVID inpatients while West Central and Southwest Ohio hit a high last week before declining slightly.
In the last day, Ohio added 151 new COVID hospitalizations and 19 ICU admissions, according to the state health department. Its 21-day average is 359 COVID hospitalizations a day and 31 ICU admissions a day.
Of the 4,044 total people with coronavirus hospitalized in the state as of Monday, 539 are in West Central Ohio and 773 are in Southwest Ohio.
From Jan. 1 through Jan. 19, Ohio has reported 55,481 COVID hospitalizations among patients not full vaccinated and 3,372 among those who were fully vaccinated.
During that same time period, 16,820 people who were not fully vaccinated have died from COVID, as well as 804 who were fully vaccinated, according to the state health department.
In West Central Ohio — which includes Champaign, Clark, Darke, Greene, Miami, Montgomery, Preble and Shelby counties — the number of hospitalized COVID patients has decreased 13% in the past week, according to the Ohio Hospital Association. In its ICUs, COVID inpatients have dropped 22% in the last week.
But compared to 60 days ago, the region’s seen a 92% increase in coronavirus patients in its hospitals and a 16% increase in its ICUs.
As for Southwest Ohio — Butler, Warren, Adams, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Hamilton and Highland counties — COVID inpatients have declined 22% over the last week, according to OHA. The number of COVID patients in its ICUs are down 10% in the last week.
Over the last 60 days, COVID patients have increased 56% in the region’s hospitals and climbed 20% in its ICUs.
The state recorded 4,160 new COVID-19 cases in the past day, according to the Ohio Department of Health on Monday. Last Tuesday, Ohio reported 4,163 daily cases, but the number was artificially low due to an input error. Monday also marked the fourth day in a row the state had recorded fewer than 10,000 daily cases.
In the past three weeks, Ohio is averaging 17,768 cases a day, according to ODH.
More than 61% of Ohioans have started the COVID-19 vaccine, including 71.36% of adults. Nearly 56.5% of residents, including 66.02% of adults, have finished the vaccine.
About 7.16 million Ohioans have received at least one vaccine dose and 6.59 million people have completed it, according to ODH. More than 3.25 million residents have received an additional vaccine dose.
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