TOLEDO, Ohio — There are signals the surge in COVID-19 cases across Ohio caused by the omicron variant is subsiding, but not all regions are seeing cases and hospitalizations decline at the same rate.
Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff held a news conference Thursday and said there are positive trends, especially in the Cleveland area, which was the first part of the state to feel the effects of omicron. Hospitalizations there reached a pandemic high this month, but have declined for 16 straight days.
Statewide, there are 5,004 people in the hospital with COVID, which is 25% less than two weeks ago.
"There is light at the end of the tunnel for us in Ohio," Vanderhoff said. "We continue to see signs of improvement in the hardest hit areas. Despite these encouraging signs, our hospitals remain challenged. Many continue to struggle with high hospitalizations approaching capacity."
Vanderhoff said cases per 100,000 people has been a reliable metric throughout the pandemic. While that number is trending down and stands around 1,700, it's still about 17 times higher than last spring and summer.
Dr. Brian Kaminski, vice president of quality and patient safety at ProMedica, joined the call Thursday. He said the Toledo area is trailing about a week behind northeast Ohio in terms of the downward trend of cases and hospitalizations.
"We're experiencing a mixed bag in northwest Ohio," Kaminski said. "We're all looking forward to seeing a reduction in all the metrics ... but we have mixed data right now. We're encouraged that the burden seems to be reducing."
Kaminski said hospitals across the ProMedica system still have capacity levels over 90%. More people died from COVID last week in those hospitals than at any other point during the pandemic.
Southern and southeast Ohio are lagging further behind. Dr. Stephen Feagins, chief clinical officer for Mercy Health in Cincinnati, said those area of Ohio are probably two weeks away from seeing a continuous decline in cases and hospitalizations.
