Coronavirus death toll for suburban Cuyahoga County last week was triple the previous week, Board of Health s – cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio The coronavirus death toll among suburban Cuyahoga County residents for last week was more than triple the previous week.

The Cuyahoga County Board of Health reported 107 new deaths recorded between Nov. 29 and Dec. 5. There were 32 deaths reported between Nov. 22 and Nov. 28, according to the Board of Health.

While data for this week wasnt yet complete on Friday, Health Commissioner Terry Allan told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that case and death counts remain high.

We are seeing more deaths as a result of the surge of cases that we saw during November, Allan said.

More complete figures released Friday by the board of health show that new cases of coronavirus were down last week at 4,187, compared to 5,005 for the week ending Nov. 28. However, week-to-week variations are expected, and are not necessarily indicative of a long-term trend, Allan said.

As of Thursday, 87% of the beds in intensive-care units at Cuyahoga County hospitals were occupied. That matched the previous weeks record-high.

Occupancy rates of regular hospital beds dipped slightly on Thursday to 77%, compared to last Thursdays occupancy rate of 80%.

Ventilator usage as of Thursday increased to 42%, compared to 39% last week, according to the data.

Between Nov. 29 and Dec. 5, the positivity rate for tests administered at MetroHealth, Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals was 25.5%, up from the previous week when the positivity rate was 24.9%. The rate has climbed steadily since October.

Of the 32,637 total suburban cases recorded through Dec. 5:

2,256 patients required hospitalization

497 required intensive care

At least 8% are health-care workers (occupational data is not known for 53%)

At least 21% had no pre-existing conditions while at least 28% did have a pre-existing condition (health information is not known for 51%)

Most of the data released Friday only involves cases prior to Dec. 5. The board opted last month to start providing six-day-old weekly totals each Friday rather than the one-day-old weekly totals it previously reported. Board officials said they made the switch to allow them to simultaneously monitor flu and coronavirus cases.

Hospitalization data is the only information the board now provides that reflects more recent trends.

Asked on Friday to provide more information about new trends since Dec. 5., Allan said new cases this week averaged 700 per day. The average was 590 last week, and 671 the week prior, Allan said.

Our [emergency room] visits are increasing and ICU bed capacity continues to worsen, Allan said.

The board has also found that people are waiting longer to get tested after their symptoms start, because they mistakenly believe they have a cold or allergies.

We want people to get tested when their symptoms start and/or isolate for the 10-day period. If they wait longer to be tested and dont isolate at the first sign of symptoms, they could be contributing to community spread, Allan said.

The board data does not reflect cases in the city of Cleveland, which has its own health department and reports its own case numbers.

Data obtained Friday from the Ohio Department of Health showed there have been 53,832 cases countywide since the start of the pandemic. As of Thursday, the total number of cases in Cleveland was 14,509, according to the city.

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Coronavirus death toll for suburban Cuyahoga County last week was triple the previous week, Board of Health s - cleveland.com