Confirmed Coronavirus Cases In Ohio Tops 675,000: Monday Update

COLUMBUS, OH — As the calendar continues to draw closer to the end of 2020, officials from the Ohio Department of Health continue to report high numbers of the coronavirus across the state, where more than 675,000 residents have now tested positive since the start of the pandemic.

On Monday, state health officials announced 4,519 new confirmed cases along with 62 deaths. While both the number of new positive cases and deaths are lower than Ohio’s 21-day rolling average of 9,083 cases and 74 deaths, the level of cases and hospitalizations across the state continues to concern state officials.

A total of 675,044 people have now tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic while 8,571 people have died, officials said.

The new statistics come just four days after state health officials announced that every county across Ohio exceeds the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s threshold for high incidence, which is 100 cases were 100,000 residents over the past two weeks. In that time, the average of more than seven times that in most cases with the average being 769 new confirmed cases per 100,000 residents. State officials said there are seven Ohio counties where there are 1,000 cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks, which means that one of every 10 people in those counties tested positive and are at risk of spreading it to others.

State officials also announced on Dec. 24 that population in the state’s hospital intensive care units are also up significantly. At the start of August, about 12 percent (one out of every eight) of ICU patients had tested positive for the coronavirus. But over the past two weeks, state health officials said that number is now is one in every three patients has tested positive.