Omicron Variant

Hospitalizations are down in Northern Ohio but going up in Southern Ohio.

The omicron variant of the coronavirus appears to cause less severe illness but is about 15 times more contagious than delta in children under the age of 5, according to a new study from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Like Ohio’s hospitals, the lobby group for nursing homes reports many of those in the Buckeye State are short-staffed due to the surge in COVID cases.

Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said the record-high number of cases right now is driving record-high hospitalizations. He uses the word, “tsunami” when describing this surge, driven by the omicron variant.

The National Veterans Memorial Museum will be closed through January 16, Ohio State is closing all concessions at athletic events, and multiple events throughout Central Ohio have been canceled due to the rise in COVID cases.

The new surge of COVID-19 cases is causing homeless shelters to return to programs run out of motels and hotels.

In the face of rising COVID-19 cases, Dr. Bob Wachter of the University of California, San Francisco, offers reasons to be hopeful about the pandemic's outlook in the months ahead.

Medical professionals say it’s true that having COVID gives you some immunity, but doesn’t make you impervious to being re-infected later. In fact, the state’s health department is tracking cases of re-infection.

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases topped 280,000 this week as the omicron variant spreads rapidly across the country, according to Johns Hopkins University's tracker.

New data from the CDC released on Tuesday shows that while omicron remains the dominant variant, delta — which is the more severe strain — is still a worrisome driving force behind the current surge.