1 in 5 hospital patients in Dayton area has COVID-19

As for southwest Ohio, which includes, Butler, Warren, Clinton Hamilton, Clermont, Brown and Adams counties, one in four hospital inpatients had the virus compared to one in six patients 60 days ago.

As of Friday, Ohio had 3,348 total COVID patients in its hospitals, including 436 in west central Ohio and 716 in southwest Ohio, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Two weeks ago, on Jan. 22, the state reported 5,362 coronavirus inpatients, with 602 in west central Ohio and 957 in southwest Ohio.

Over the last three weeks west central Ohio has seen a 29% decrease in hospitalized COVID patients and 27% decrease in patients in the ICU with the virus, according to OHA. Southwest Ohio is reporting a similar decline with a 27% drop in coronavirus inpatients and 20% decrease in ICU COVID patients over the past three weeks.

In the past day Ohio reported 203 COVID hospitalizations and 19 ICU admissions, according to the state health department. The state’s 21-day average is 340 hospitalizations a day and 30 ICU admissions a day.

Just over 4,000 daily COVID cases were reported Friday. It’s the fewest number of daily cases reported in at least three weeks. It also marked the eighth day in a row that fewer than 10,000 cases were recorded. Over the last three weeks Ohio is averaging 14,169 cases a day.

Ohio added 680 COVID deaths Friday, bringing its total to 34,217, according to ODH.

The state updates death data twice a week. Because other states don’t regularly report death certificate information to Ohio’s Bureau of Vital Statistics, death data can fluctuate.

The day a death is reported does not reflect the day it occurred.

Nearly 61.5% of Ohioans have started the COVID-19 vaccine, including 71.45% of adults and 65.26% of those 5 and older. More than 56.5% of residents, including 66.15% of adults and 60.09% of people 5 and older, have completed the vaccine.

Nearly 7.18 million people in the state have received at least one dose of the vaccine as of Friday and almost 6.61 million have finished it, according to the state health department. More than 3.28 million Ohioans have received an additional vaccine dose.