Ohio reports 2nd highest daily COVID case total of pandemic

More than 4,600 patients in Ohio’s hospitals on Christmas Eve are COVID-19 positive, the same day the state reported its second highest daily case total of the entire pandemic.

The Ohio Department of Health on Friday reported 14,414 coronavirus cases in the last day after setting record highs for the previous three days, including 15,989 cases recorded Thursday.

The ODH and Ohio Hospital Association on Friday reported the 4,659 COVID patients hospitalized account for 25% of all hospitalizations across the state. Of those, 1,196 are receiving intensive care, accounting for one-third of all ICU patients, data show.

Ohio’s 21-day average increased to 9,196 cases a day Friday. In the last five days, the state is averaging 12,770 cases a day.

Ohio has reported 28,720 COVID deaths since the pandemic began, and there have been 443 deaths reported since Tuesday. The day a death is reported does not reflect the day it occurred. Because the state updates death data twice a week, trends can fluctuate.

Surges of new cases and hospitalizations can result in surges of deaths reported weeks later.

The state health department was not able to update its vaccination dashboard due to an outage with Ohio’s immunization database vendor. The state is working to resolve the issue, but vaccination reporting is expected to be delayed through Monday.

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