Total COVID-19 cases in state passes 500,000

Daily cases set record after adjustment for CDC guidelines.

Ohio on Tuesday surpassed a half million total coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic as 25,700 cases were added, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

The large one-day number was expected since state and local epidemiologists are no longer taking extra steps to verify positive antigen tests. Ohio began reporting positive COVID-19 antigen tests Tuesday without additional verification, in accordancewith Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting guidelines.

Previously, ODHmanually verified the cases before the state added them to its totals.

Gov. Mike DeWine noted Monday that the

change would result ina spike incasesbeing reported. Ohio had a backlog of 12,600 positive antigen cases pending, whichwere added to the rest of the positive cases dating back to Nov. 1.

“After understanding more about antigen tests, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, changed their case definition in August allowing antigen tests to be included in case counts without add it i on alveri fifi cation ,” said ODH Chief Medical Off iffic er Dr. Bruce Van der hoff ff ff ff ff ff .“OD His now aligned withCDC’s current de fifi nit ion and we will begin reflecting those tests immediately in our daily reported case counts moving forward.”

However, evenwithout the 13,000 cases from the backlog, Tuesday numberswould still be high, with around 12,000 new cases. In all, there have been 510,018 coronavirus cases in Ohio since the outbreak began.

On Nov. 28, Ohio surpassed 400,000 total cases after reporting more than 6,800 daily cases. The state has recorded another 100,000 cases in less than two weeks.

Hospitalizations increased by 657 Tuesday, for a total of 30,226.

There are 5,181 COVID-19 patients in hospitals across

Ohio, with 1,226 patients in southwest Ohio.

The region has 1,992 hospital beds, or 27.95%, available, according to ODH.

Southwest Ohio also reported 273 COVID-19 patients in the ICU and 209 on ventilators Tuesday. Ohio has recorded a total of 5,010 ICU admissions during the pandemic.

Deaths increased by 81 Tuesday, bringing the total to 7,103.

On Monday, DeWine announced that the state’s curfewfrom10p.m. to 5 a.m. will be extended. The curfew was set to expire Thursday. It is not clear how long it will be continued.

Deaths fromCOVID-19 in theU.S. have soared tomore than 2,200a day on average, matching the frightening peak reached last April, and cases per day have eclipsed 200,000 on average for the fifirst timeon record, with the crisis all but certain to get worse because of the fallout from Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.

Virtually every state is reporting surges just as a vaccine appears days away from getting the go-ahead in the U.S.

The virus is blamed for more than 285,000 deaths and 15 million confirmed infections in the United States.