Big milestones for coronavirus in Ohio; hospital patient count stays below 1,000, and other trends and update

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ohio reached two major milestones in the last week in turning back coronavirus - the hospital patient count dropped below 1,000 after once being over 5,000, and the state over the weekend reported fewer than 1,000 new cases on a day for the first time since early October.

This comes as the number of people being vaccinated has shot up, to over 2 million by Monday, according to Gov. Mike DeWine, though the official count that often lags was listed at 1,997,268, according to the Ohio Department of Health’s website.

To date, however, coronavirus has claimed at least 17,502 Ohio lives, hospitalized 50,965 and infected at least 979,725, the health department reported.

Tuesday marks one year since Ohio confirmed its first three cases. Here’s a closer look at the latest trends.

Hospitalizations

Hospitalizations have been on the decline in Ohio for weeks after the rapid spike in the fall to a record 5,308 on Dec. 15.

The 823 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 on Sunday and 830 on Monday represented a drop from 1,183 on March 1, 2,519 on Feb. 1 and 4,083 on Jan. 1, according to daily surveys by the Ohio Hospital Association. These numbers are for patients in Ohio hospitals, not all of whom are Ohio residents. Some Ohioans are hospitalized elsewhere.

Among these, 244 patients were in intensive care units on Monday, down from 295 a week ago, and from the record of 1,318 on Dec. 15.

About 35% of the state’s hospital beds were vacant Monday, including 34% of the ICU beds - about the same as a week ago.

Cases

Ohio reported 10,851 cases in the last week, an average of 1,550 a day. This is down from averages of 1,928, 2,016, 2,732, 3,295, 4,346 and 5,370 the last several weeks, and down from close to 6,700 a day at the end of December.

On Sunday, the state reported 735 new cases. That was the fewest cases reported on a single day since Sept. 8, and the first time under 1,000 since Oct. 4.

The counties with the most cases are Ohio’s three largest counties - Franklin (113,218 cases), Cuyahoga (97,121) and Hamilton (73,990). Case rates per 100 residents, hospitalizations and deaths for every county in Ohio can be found in the chart at the bottom of this story.

Vaccines

The dropping case numbers come as more Ohioans have received vaccines.

The 1,997,268 vaccinations started through reporting on Monday was up from 1,687,834 last week and 1,058,141 a month ago on Feb. 8.

This means about 1-in-5 of Ohio’s 9.1 million adults have been vaccinated to date, or 22%.

These are estimates in part because the Ohio data for vaccines includes some people from other states who work in Ohio - at least 44,584 so far - yet some Ohioans may have received vaccinations in other states.

The counties with the most vaccines started are Cuyahoga (206,486) and Franklin (196,028).

Deaths

The state has now reported 17,502 deaths caused by the coronavirus. This includes more than 4,000 added last month after the state health department discovered it had failed to include these in previous reports.

However, death reporting is now delayed more than previously. The state is now awaiting details from the federal Centers for Disease Controls for all deaths, and updates are now being made just twice a week.

The counties with the most deaths are Cuyahoga (1,881), Franklin (1,251) and Hamilton (1,067

Among the dead are at least 6,602 patients of nursing homes and other long-term facilities statewide, according to the the state’s last update on Thursday. This was down from 7,462 the previous week, as the state removed hundreds of deaths in changing the way fatalities are reported. Most of these will be added back later once the paperwork is processed by the CDC.

Demographics

Three-in-four of the deaths have been to people age 70 and older, breaking down this way: under age 20 (3), in their 20s (19), in their 30s (86), in their 40s (229), in their 50s (852), in their 60s (2,456), in their 70s (4,672) and at least 80 years old (9,185).

Those age 80 and up have accounted for 52% of the known coronavirus deaths, in comparison to 44% of all known Ohio deaths in 2018. Those in their 70s have accounted for 27% of the coronavirus deaths, in comparison to 21% of all Ohio deaths in 2018 ahead of the virus.

But for hospitalizations, the cases are more spread out age-wise: under age 20 (1,192), in their 20s (1,952), in their 30s (2,579), in their 40s (3,957), in their 50s (7,211), in their 60s (10,952), in their 70s (12,130) and at least 80 years old (9,185).

For the deaths in which race was reported, 86% of the people are white, and 12% are Black. For total cases, 75% are white and 13% Black.

Ohio’s overall population is 82% white and 13% Black. But among Ohioans at least 70 years old - the age group accounting for three-quarters of the deaths - Ohio is 89% white and 9% Black.

Case milestones and testing

The first three cases were confirmed on March 9. The total topped 100,000 on Aug. 9, 250,000 on Nov. 8, 500,000 on Dec. 8, and 750,000 on Thursday, Jan. 7.

Among the cases reported to date are 142,509 listed as “probable,” those cases included by a wider variety of tests or identified through non-testing evidence. This total is up from 138,592 last week.

The state reported 10,282,753 tests to date, including 226,151 in the last week, down from 251,204 a week ago and up from an unusually low 186,137 the previous week.

The chart below is based on the most recent case data from the Ohio Department of Health. Cleveland.com calculated the cases per 100 rates based on 2019 census population estimates.

Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner. See other data-related stories at cleveland.com/datacentral.

Some mobile users may have to use this link instead to view the county-by-county chart above.

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