Ohio reports 15,000 daily COVID cases as hospitalizations decline

Ohio recorded its fewest number of COVID-19 cases in three weeks Tuesday as the number of hospital patients with the virus declines.

The state reported 15,077 cases on Tuesday, according to the Ohio Department of Health. It’s the fewest number of daily cases recorded this year. The omicron variant resulted in a surge in cases and hospitalizations at the end of the year. In the last three weeks, Ohio’s daily average is 22,063 cases a day.

As of Tuesday Ohio had 6,036 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, 1,161 in the ICU and 815 on ventilators, according to the state health department.

While hospitalizations and ICU admissions are up from two months ago, they’ve started to drop recently. In the last week, the number of coronavirus patients hospitalized in the state decreased by 9% and dropped 5% in ICUs, according to the Ohio Hospital Association. Compared to 60 days ago, COVID inpatients have increased 98% and ICU patients with virus have increased 38%.

ODH reported 423 hospitalizations and 45 ICU admissions in the past day. Ohio’s 21-day average is 362 hospitalizations a day and 34 ICU admissions a day.

The state reported 323 new COVID deaths in Tuesday’s report, bringing its total to 31,245 since the pandemic began. The day a death is reported does not reflect the day it occurred. The state updates death data twice a week.

Because other states don’t regularly report death certificate details to Ohio’s Bureau of Vital Statistics, data can fluctuate.

Nearly 61% of Ohioans have started the COVID vaccine, including 70.96% of adults and 64.67% of those 5 and older. More than 55.5% of residents, including 65.6% of adults and 59.33% of people 5 and older, have finished the vaccine series.

More than 7.11 million Ohioans have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 6.25 million have completed it, according to ODH. About 3.1 million residents have received an additional dose of the vaccine.

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