Ohio hit a new record of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 on Monday, topping the high numbers of hospitalizations set in July.
The Ohio Hospital Association reports 1,154 COVID patients taking up nearly 4.5% of the beds in the state. That’s almost double the number hospitalized a month ago.
The numbers of people in intensive care and on ventilators are also up. The system still has about 31 % capacity left, or around 8,000 beds. But last week Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he’s worried.
“Hospital admissions have been declining, had been declining for many weeks since our peak in mid July. Unfortunately, we started to see that trend change a few weeks ago as a reminder, hospital admissions are lagging indicator," DeWine said.
The 83 confirmed deaths on October 2 was the highest since late April, though the death totals have dropped since then.
The state hit a record of 2,069 confirmed cases on Thursday.
Ohio saw an increase of 1,837 cases of COVID-19 reported in the last 24 hours on Monday. While this marks the second straight day of cases falling below 2,000 new cases, it keeps the state on par with the upward trend.
The state tends to see a lag in reported COVID-19 cases coming out of the weekend, which means the state could see another spike above 2,000 cases and higher hospital admissions later in the week.
The state now has a 21-day average of more than 1,500 new cases a day.
DeWine has said there are no plans in the work for new policy changes to address the spread of the virus, other than continuing to encourage people to avoid gatherings and wear masks.
DeWine said a new supply of rapid testing will soon be used in targeted, high-risk areas.
