COVID-19 situation seeing improvements in northeast Ohio, but health officials still cautious – Akron Beacon Journal

Ohio health officials on Thursday cautioned against too much optimism that Ohio has reached its peak of the current omicron variant wave.

"Thankfully we are seeing many signs of improvements in many of Ohio's hardest-hit areas," Ohio Department of Health Director Bruce Vanderhoff said. "But the reality is thatmany other parts of the state are still on the rise of this omicron tidal wave.

Ohio has seen improvements inCOVID-19 hospitalization numbers after breaking daily records multiple times earlier this month. Since a week ago, the number of Ohioans currently in the hospital with COVID-19 has been on a steady decline.

Northeast Ohio, the hardest hit, has seen the steepest declines witharound a 24% drop over the last ten days.As of Wednesday, 5,889 Ohioans were in hospitals with the virus.

More: Ohio clearing data backlog as it faces unprecedented levels of COVID-19 cases, testing

More: Omicron forces nursing homes to freeze admissions, strands more Ohioans at hospitals

Ohio health experts have predicted that the current wave of the more contagious omicron variant would slowly trend down in Ohio toward the end of January.

The situation is still dire, however, Vanderhoff said. Hospitalization and COVID-19 levels are still above the previous winter surge when vaccines were only just becoming available.Ohio is still getting north of 20,000 positive COVID-19 tests every day.

And other regions of the state are seeing increases. Southwest Ohio saw a 14% increase and western Ohio saw a 13% increasein COVID-19 ICU admissions over the prior week.

Things continue in our Dayton area to be very critical," said Roberto Colon, chief medical officer of Miami Valley Hospital."The pace of new cases hasnot yet sloweddown like we have seen in other areas…it is tremendously taxing to our staff.

More than 2,000 Ohio National Guard members are still deployed to help hospitals understaffed and overwhelmed by COVID-19. They will soon be shiftedto other areas of the state, saidMajor General John C. Harris, Jr., head of the Ohio National Guard, with 400 moving from northeast Ohio to the Dayton and Cincinnati area.

Assistance from the federal level has arrived and is coming. President Joe Biden sent 20 Air Force medical professionals to Cleveland Clinic.Details have yet to come on theFederal Emergency Management Agency sending a team to help out Summa Health in Akron.

Testing demand has decreased in northeast Ohio as the situation improves slightly. But statewide and nationwide, the demand is causing strain on supplying COVID-19 tests.

This month, Ohio ordered 1.2 million testing kits, but only a fraction hasbeen delivered, said Vanderhoff. Once shipments arrive,400,000 testing kits can be distributed with priority going to schools.

It's likely that thestate'sability to provide tests could be intermittently affected," Vanderhoffsaid.

Titus Wu is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

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COVID-19 situation seeing improvements in northeast Ohio, but health officials still cautious - Akron Beacon Journal