Region sees drop in cases

Lowest reported new COVID-19 numbers since early November

Lake County saw 758 new novel coronavirus cases between Jan. 19 and Jan. 26, the lowest reported number of new weekly cases since early November.

The county had 16,350 cumulative COVID-19 cases as of 2 p.m., Jan. 26, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Of that total, ODH presumes 13,819 have recovered. ODH defines presumed recovered as those with a symptom onset date greater than 21 days prior who are not deceased.

Between Oct. 27 and Nov. 3, there were 490 new COVID-19 cases in Lake County. That was more than double the newly reported cases from the week prior (205). Both were weekly records at that time.

The following week Lake County would reach 1,000 reported COVID-19 cases for the first time. Since then, the county has typically seen 1,000 or more new cases per week.

In its peak week (Nov. 1724) the county saw 1,629 new cases. Prior to this week, Lake

County was under 1,000 new cases twice: between Dec. 22 and Dec. 29 there were 927 new cases reported. Last week there were 973 new cases reported.

Between. Jan. 19 and Jan. 26, there were 27

new hospitalizations reported, down from 30 the week prior. The county now has 597 cumulative COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Twenty-five new COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the county, bringing Lake County’s total to 161. Definitive cause of death can take weeks to months to determine, according to officials.

The Lake County General Health District releases weekly COVID-19 data reports on Wednesdays.

Those reports include, among other things, demographic breakdowns of cases, hospitalizations and

deaths.

The health district did not release a data report Jan. 27, citing a recent update to the Ohio Disease Reporting System.

“A recent update to the Ohio Disease Reporting System imposed a limit to downloading information on only records modified within the past 30 days (to help decrease some of the load on the system),” Lake County General Health District Policy, Research, and Planning Coordinator Jessica F. Wakelee said in an email.

“All older records are stored in a separate archive system, backed up twice weekly, so to get cumulative data, data now has to be pulled from two systems instead of one, and makes the numbers challenging

Twenty-five new COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the county, bringing Lake County’s total to 161. Definitive cause of death can take weeks to months to determine, according to officials.

to reconcile,” she continued.

Wakelee said the health district is working with ODH and hoping to have a resolution to the issue as soon as possible.

According to the ODH, there have been 13,407 COVID-19 vaccinations started in Lake County as of Jan. 27.

That represents 5.83 percent of the county’s population. Statewide, there have been 682,705 vaccinations started as of Jan. 27, representing 5.84 percent of Ohio’s population.

More county-specific information related to COVID-19 and more can be found at the Lake County General Health District’s website at https://www.lcghd.org/.