Coronavirus: Cases fall to lowest reported number of 2021

Credit: Marshall Gorby

Credit: Marshall Gorby

The Ohio Department of Health reported 1,809 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the lowest number of cases reported since the beginning of 2021. The previous lowest number was 1,926, reported on Feb. 8, ODH said.

The state’s 21 day case average has fallen to 3,573, down from yesterday’s total of 3,700. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the state has reported 939,350 cases of coronavirus.

In the past 24 hours, six deaths were reported, falling far below the current average of 268 deaths. This average was skewed by an additional 4,000 deaths that ODH reconciled after issues caused underreporting of deaths. The state has reported 16,346 deaths from coronavirus since March.

Coronavirus hospitalizations continue to remain below 2,000 for the sixth day in a row, the Ohio Hospital Association reported Sunday. Currently, 1,657 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, with 443 hospitalizations in southwest Ohio. Coronavirus patients have dropped by 17 percent in the past week, the Ohio Hospital Association reported.

In the past 24 hours, 64 hospitalizations were reported, bringing total hospitalizations to 48,556.

Average daily new coronavirus cases in the United States dipped below 100,000 in recent days for the first time in months, but experts cautioned Sunday that infections remain high and precautions to slow the pandemic must remain in place.

The seven-day rolling average of new infections was well above 200,000 for much of December and went to roughly 250,000 in January, according to data kept by Johns Hopkins University, as the pandemic came roaring back after it had been tamed in some places over the summer.

That average dropped below 100,000 on Friday for the first time since Nov. 4. It stayed below 100,000 on Saturday.

“We are still at about 100,000 cases a day. We are still at around 1,500 to 3,500 deaths per day. The cases are more than two-and-a-half-fold times what we saw over the summer,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It’s encouraging to see these trends coming down, but they’re coming down from an extraordinarily high place.”

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