Ohio on Wednesday reported its second-highest number of confirmed deaths from COVID-19, and the third day this week that death totals hit the triple digits.
According to the Ohio Department of Health, 123 confirmed and probable deaths from COVID-19 were reported Wednesday, up from 102 the day before. The current record of 153 deaths in a single day came last Wednesday.
Among the recent deaths was Scioto County Commissioner Mike Crabtree, who had just been re-elected in November.
After five days in a row of setting hospitalization records, Ohio saw a slight overall drop in patients on Wednesday – with 5,208 people hospitalized and 1,222 in the ICU. At the same time, COVID patients on ventilators hit 714, a new record.
The state reported more than 7,400 new confirmed cases – compared to just over 2,700 a month ago. Ohio's positivity rate for Wednesday was18.9%, with a seven-day moving average of 15.1%.
Because the positivity rate is above 15%, it puts Ohio on its own travel advisory list of states to avoid.
In his coronavirus briefing Monday, Gov. Mike DeWine warned that there’s no indication that the state has hit a plateau.
“There’s a two- to three-week lag before a case," DeWine warned. "They test positive and when they might be going into the hospital, when they might be going into an ICU. So we know that what’s going to happen for the next couple of weeks is sort of baked in already, it’s going to happen.”
Since the pandemic began, Ohio has seen a total of 437,928 COVID-19 cases and 6,671 deaths. However, the Ohio Department of Health still says that thousands of reports are pending.
