Ohio rushes past 400,000 total COVID-19 cases
Ohio shattered another grim pandemic barrier, passing 400,000 coronavirus cases. The Ohio Department of Health reported 6,895 new cases Saturday. The nearly 7,000 additional cases, logged on the heels of at least 17,065 Ohioans testing positive in the two prior days, brought the state’s total number of COVID-19 cases to 406,703.
While Saturday’s numbers are below the three-week average of 7,666 cases, more Ohioans have likely contracted the virus than the state was able to report by the time the daily COVID-19 data was posted at 2 p.m., as there is a backlog of pending cases. The number of new cases for Franklin County wasn’t available Saturday afternoon. The county has been in “purple” status, the highest rating signifying severe COVID-19 spread.
Ohio’s new daily cases have consistently hovered between 6,000 and 9,000 since Nov. 12. Gov. Mike Dewine urged concerned Ohioans to stay at home Saturday and support #Smallbusinesssaturday by shopping online, using curbside pickup and ordering takeout. “This year, #Supportlocalohio while staying safe,” he tweeted.
Throughout the next week ODH is offering free pop-up testing statewide from Paulding to Youngstown to Ottawa — a service Dewine has frequently encouraged Ohioans to use if needed. Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday lines for those testing sites wrapped around street corners and backed up half a mile of traffic in Columbus.
Another 32 people died from coronavirus, below the three-week average of 42, according to Saturday’s data. So far 6,378 Ohioans have been killed by the virus. Nearly 5,000 Ohioans are currently in the hospital and more than 26,000 have been hospitalized throughout the course of the pandemic, according to the state. Another 302 were hospitalized on Saturday and 37 were admitted to the ICU. Both reports of hospitalizations and ICU admissions were above their respective three-week averages of 279 hospitalizations and 29 admissions.
More than 1,000 remain in the ICU and 638 COVID-19 patients are on ventilators.
The positive rate of virus tests was 15.5% on Thursday, the latest day available, with the seven-day average at 14.0%. cdoyle@dispatch.com @cadoyle_18