Coronavirus cases trend down in Ohio after weeks of increases; hospitalizations still up – latest trends and – cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Newly reported coronavirus cases are down over the last week across Ohio, while hospitalizations are up.

This could be a positive change to what had been a spring uptick in cases across Ohio.

More will be known in the coming days and weeks, but health officials say hospital trends often lag the cases by a several days to a week because it generally takes time for patients to get sick enough to need the more extensive treatment.

The latest increases in hospitalizations could be the result of earlier case increases. If newly reported cases do continue to decline, the hospitalization trends would be expected to eventually follow.

The seven-day average for newly reported cases dipped to 1,917 a day on Monday, the lowest this average has been since April 7. It was as high recently as 2,154 on Wednesday.

To date, Ohio has reported 18,991 deaths, 55,016 hospitalizations and 1,054,807 cases. This means that 1-in-11 Ohioans is known to have contracted the coronavirus at some point.

Heres a closer look at the latest trends.

The average number of newly reported coronavirus cases declined some in the last week.Rich Exner, cleveland.com

A total of 1,323 coronavirus patients were reported in Ohio hospitals on Monday, the highest patient count reported by the Ohio Hospital Association since Feb. 24. The daily census had dropped as low as 823 on March 7 and didnt climb back over 1,000 until Thursday, April 1.

There were 1,234 patients a week ago, on April 12.

However, even the increased numbers remain well below where they were months ago, including a record 5,308 patients on Dec. 15.

Among Mondays patients were 378 in intensive care units, up from 315 a week ago. The high was 1,318 on Dec. 15.

Ohio's coronavirus hospital patient count has been trending up.Rich Exner, cleveland.com

The state reported starting vaccines for 268,328 people in the last week, a drop for the the third consecutive week. The latest number is in comparison to 400,851, 445,174, 454,155, and 431,824 the previous weeks.

The 4,390,744 vaccinations started through reporting on Monday means about 47% of Ohios population age 16 and up has received at least one shot. Younger people are not approved to receive vaccines.

These are estimates in part because the Ohio data for vaccines includes some people from other states such as those who work in Ohio or traveled here for shots - at least 125,515 so far - yet some Ohioans received vaccinations in other states.

About 38% of Ohioans have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. About 43% of those older enough to be vaccinated have not yet received a shot.Rich Exner, cleveland.com

Ohio reported an average of 1,917 cases a day in the last week.

This compares with averages of 2,066 1,973, 1,704, 1,551, 1,516 and 1,550 the last several weeks, and down from close to 6,700 a day at the end of December.

Cases are trending younger. About 59% of the new cases over the first half of April involved people under the age of 40, in comparison to 44% for this age group during the first half of December - ahead of the vaccination effort.

The number of coronavirus cases reported daily by the state of Ohio over the last three weeks. There was no report on Easter.Rich Exner, cleveland.com

The state has reported 18,991 deaths caused by the coronavirus, though this is an undercount.

The Ohio Department of Health announced on March 2 that it was dropping efforts to track deaths in a timely manner. It said the change would delay death reporting by up to six months in some cases. The health department is now awaiting details from the federal Centers for Disease Control for all deaths.

Illustrating how far the paperwork now lags, the state has reported just 56 deaths occurring in April, with none since April 13 and only four on April 11 or later.

The state has reported 473 deaths occurring in March, 1,330 in February, 3,638 in January and 5,470 in December.

Though Cuyahoga County has the most deaths (2,069) of any county in the state, its death rate of 1.68 per 1,000 residents is just slightly above the statewide rate of 1.62 per 1,000. The counties with the highest rates are Monroe (3 per 1,000), Putnam (2.92) and Tuscarawas (2.61).

Ohio coronavirus deaths by month.Rich Exner, cleveland.com

Among the dead are at least 7,198 patients of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to the last weekly update on Wednesday, April 14. This is up from 7,167 reported a week earlier.

However, the actual number is unclear. Before the state changed its death reporting methods, it had reported 7,462 nursing home deaths in early March.

The health department said Wednesday there were 291 current cases involving nursing home patients, and 319 involving nursing home staff. This was down from 476 and 329 the previous week.

In mid-December, there were 5,155 patient cases and 3,271 staff cases. Case details by nursing home can be found at this link.

The number of Ohio nursing home patients with the coronavirus has shrunk below 300, according to the Ohio Department of Health.Rich Exner, cleveland.com

The state updates school data each Thursday. It reported 1,171 new student cases last week, and 146 new staff cases across Ohio. These totals reported on April 15 cover new cases discovered from from April 5 to April 11.

The student case total was up sharply from 635 the previous week, when there also were 119 staff cases.

School-by-school details can be found at this link.

Three-in-four of the deaths have been to people age 70 and older, breaking down this way: under age 20 (7), in their 20s (24), in their 30s (101, in their 40s (266), in their 50s (961), in their 60s (2,741), in their 70s (5,095) and at least 80 years old (9,796).

Those age 80 and up have accounted for 52% of the known coronavirus deaths, in comparison to 44% of all known Ohio deaths for all causes in 2018.

Those in their 70s have accounted for 27% of the coronavirus deaths, in comparison to 21% of all Ohio deaths in 2018 ahead of the virus.

But for hospitalizations, the cases are more spread out age-wise: under age 20 (1,347), in their 20s (2,207), in their 30s (2,927), in their 40s (4,390), in their 50s (7,982), in their 60s (11,846), in their 70s (12,806) and at least 80 years old (11,511).

Hospitalizations have decreased sharply among older age groups since the start of vaccines. Older people were the first focus of vaccine efforts.

For the deaths in which race was reported, 86% of the people are white, and 13% are Black. For total cases, 75% are white and 13% Black.

Ohios overall population is 82% white and 13% Black. But among Ohioans at least 70 years old - the age group accounting for three-quarters of the deaths - Ohio is 89% white and 9% Black.

The first three cases were confirmed on March 9, 2020. The total topped 100,000 on Aug. 9, 250,000 on Nov. 8, 500,000 on Dec. 8, and 1 million on March 22.

Among the cases reported to date are 165,913 listed as probable, those cases included by a wider variety of tests or identified through non-testing evidence. This total is up from 157,804 last week.

The state reported 11,582,295 tests to date, including 218,694 in the last week, in comparison to 237,471 and 187,537 the previous weeks. During parts of January, more than 340,000 tests were conducted during seven-day periods.

Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner. See other data-related stories at cleveland.com/datacentral.

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Coronavirus cases trend down in Ohio after weeks of increases; hospitalizations still up - latest trends and - cleveland.com