Coronavirus: Ohio tops 2,500 new cases, breaks record for third straight day

Credit: Springfield News-Sun

Credit: Springfield News-Sun

Ohio broke its record for new coronavirus cases for the third straight day with 2,518 cases reported Friday.

The previous two records were 2,425 reported Thursday and 2,366 reported Wednesday. In the last two weeks, Ohio broke the state record for daily cases six times.

There have been 192,948 total cases in Ohio throughout the pandemic, according to the state health department.

Ohio reported 184 additional hospitalizations Friday, bringing the total to 17,866 during the pandemic.

Hospitalization rates have continued to climb the last two weeks in southwest Ohio, with nearly 200 more COVID-19 patients in hospitals.

On Oct. 10, there were 255 coronavirus patients in southwest Ohio hospitals, according to the Ohio Department of Health. On Friday, that number is 424.

Dr. Andy Thomas, chief clinical officer with Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, joined Gov. Mike DeWine’s COVID-19 press briefings earlier this week to discuss the rising hospital rates.

“We are certainly at the highest point we’ve seen across the state at any time during the pandemic in terms of total hospitalizations,” he said.

While the state’s hospital beds are not at capacity at this time, health officials are watching to see where hospitalizations will peak. Currently, there’s no indication of when hospitalizations will level off.

Over the last 21 days, Ohio is averaging 104 new hospitalizations a day.

In the last day, 25 new ICU admissions were reported for a total of 3,682.

Deaths in Ohio increased by 23 on Friday for a total of 5,184. since the pandemic began.

Ohio also is reporting the highest number of red counties since the state first announced the alert system at the end of June. As of Thursday, 74% of Ohioans are living in a level 3, or red, county. Only 1% of Ohioans live in a level 1 county. This is the lowest number of level 1 counties the state has had.

In the Miami Valley, Butler, Clark, Greene, Mercer, Montgomery and Warren counties are all at level 3. Clark County is one of three counties in the state at risk of moving up to the highest status, level 4, or purple, next week.

DeWine said that counties on the watch list currently qualify for level 4 but must meet the indicators for two straight weeks before they move up.

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