Ohio’s new COVID-19 cases top 26K Sunday

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Credit: JIM NOELKER

New COVID-19 cases totaled 26,117 in the last 24 hours in Ohio, and new hospitalizations totaled 125, according to the Ohio Department of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard.

The state is working to clear a reporting backlog that was inflating case counts last week. As the Omicron variant surged, the state’s reporting system reached its processing capacity, but improvements to the system on Thursday expanded the state’s ability to report cases.

New cases are higher than the 21-day average of reported cases, which is 21,533 cases, but new hospitalizations in the last 24 hours are down from the 365 average. The average number of COVID deaths reported over the past 21 days is 105.

Death data are recorded twice a week and none were reported Sunday.

So far in Ohio, 30,922 people have died of COVID-19. There have been 2.38 million reported cases and 102,129 hospitalizations.

Hospitals are overwhelmed with the huge numbers of COVID-19 patients, and the Ohio National Guard was called up to assist. As of today there are 6,153 Ohioans hospitalized with COVID-19 and 829 of them are on ventilators.

The state reported that 60.79% of Ohioans, or over 7.1 million people, have received at least one dose of the multi-dose COVID-19 vaccine, including 6,057 in the last 24 hours. People over 60 are the most likely to have had at least one vaccine dose. Rates for age groups above 60 range from 81.1% for the 60-64 group to 92.64% for those aged 70-74.

The group with the lowest rate are people aged 0-19, at 28.42 percent, although that age group includes children under 5 who are not eligible for the vaccine. Among adults, the lowest percent who have at least one shot are those aged 20-29, with a 55.75% rate.

Three types of COVID-19 vaccines are approved in the U.S. They are Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech m-RNA vaccines, plus Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine. Pfizer’s is approved for ages 5 and up and the other two are for ages 18 and up. The m-RNA vaccines require two shots in the primary series and J&J has one. Booster shots of the m-RNA shots are recommend in all cases by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Scientists say the vaccines dramatically reduce the chance of being hospitalized or dying from COVID-19. The CDC also recommends face masks, hand-washing and social distancing to protect against COVID, particularly the extremely transmissible Omicron variant.

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