Ohio has hit the highest number of COVID-19 cases ever reported in a single day with Christmas just days away.There were 12,864 new cases over a 24-hour period reported Wednesday.State health officials said there were 492 new hospital admissions for a total of about 4,000 people hospitalized around Ohio. There are 800 people on ventilators.“We should all be very concerned by the tidal wave of COVID hospitalizations, which again are driven largely by unvaccinated Ohioans,” said director of the Ohio Health Department Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff.The northern part of Ohio has been hit hardest so far. The state rolled out plans for the Ohio National Guard to be deployed to those areas first, then reassess in the coming days and weeks.“It’s disappointing. In Cincinnati, we may not be seeing the numbers the north is seeing, we know it’s coming,” said UC Health Dr. Jen Forrester. “Honestly, we’re worried that given the stresses, that we’re not going to be able to provide the care that we want to provide to each and every one of our patients.”Testing facilities were jammed Wednesday as people tried to make sure their get-togethers can be as safe as possible.“Now that my boyfriend tested positive, I got to stay home,” said one woman who was in a long line of cars for COVID testing. “Last year, we did a Zoom Christmas and we were like ‘finally this year,’ and then everything changed.”Health officials said it was too early to tell if the new cases were omicron or delta or both.

Doctors are expecting kids as young as 12 years old to be getting the Pfizer vaccine locally as soon as Wednesday or Thursday after the Food and Drug Administration made it available through new emergency approval.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the states have to sign off on the approval which is expected to happen very quickly.“Having the vaccine available now for 12 and above is going to really be a big step forward to make our return to normal much quicker,” Dr. Robert Frenck said.Frenck led the Pfizer trials for adults at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and is now working on research on children down to age 5.“I’m really excited about having the vaccine available for 12 and above. I’m going to be more excited when we have it for younger children,” Frenck said.Frenck expects the vaccine for those ages 5 to 11 to be approved by the fall.The biggest impact of the approval is that many parents are now facing the decision to vaccinate their children.Cincinnati Children’s chief of staff Patty Manning said the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the risks.The American Pediatrics Association numbers show 3.8 million kids have had COVID-19, 15,000 have been hospitalized, more than 300 have died.Cincinnati is not immune to the trends.“Every day here at Children’s Hospital, since I can’t remember when, we’ve had at least one, if not many children hospitalized with COVID. That is the reality,” Manning said. “We can’t promise you, neither Dr. Frenck nor myself could ever promise you your child won’t get COVID and that it wouldn’t be serious, But we can promise you with the vaccine the chance of that happening is significantly reduced.”