For the first time since mid-November, Ohio had fewer than 3,000 people hospitalized for COVID-19.
The Ohio Hospital Association reported 2,992 coronavirus inpatients on Tuesday, with west central and southwest Ohio accounting for a third of the state’s patients.
West central Ohio, which includes Champaign, Clark, Darke, Greene, Miami, Montgomery, Preble and Shelby counties, had 427 hospitalized COVID patients, and southwest Ohio, which includes Butler, Warren, Clinton, Hamilton, Clermont, Brown and Adams counties, had 616. The remaining six regions made up for the rest of the 1,949 patients.
While COVID hospitalizations have been declining for the last few weeks, the Dayton and Cincinnati areas are seeing a slower decrease than Ohio’s overall rate.
In the last three weeks, the state has reported a 49% decline in COVID inpatients, whereas west central Ohio decreased by 28% and southwest Ohio dropped by 40% during that same time period.
As for ICU patients, 594 throughout the state had COVID as of Tuesday, according to OHA. In west central Ohio, 67 ICU patients have the virus and 130 in southwest Ohio tested positive.
Over the past three weeks Ohio has seen a 49% decrease in ICU patients with coronavirus. During the same period, west central Ohio recorded a 38% decline and southwest Ohio had a 34% decrease.
In the last day, Ohio added 452 COVID hospitalizations and 33 ICU admissions, according to the Ohio Department of Health. The state is averaging 329 hospitalizations a day and 27 ICU admissions a day in the past three weeks.
The state reported 4,385 daily cases on Tuesday, making it the fifth day in a row fewer than 5,000 daily cases have been recorded. Ohio’s 21-day average is 9,447 cases day.
Ohio added 375 COVID deaths, bringing its total to 34,592, according to ODH. The state updates death data twice a week. The data can fluctuate because other state’s don’t regularly report death certificate information to Ohio’s Bureau of Vital Statistics.
The day a death is reported does not reflect the day the death occurred.
