COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio health director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff acknowledged on Thursday more signs that the omicron variant wave of COVID-19 is receding, as cases drop about as quickly as they rose before an early January peak.
“Just about every region of Ohio is experiencing this drop in cases and hospitalizations,” Vanderhoff said in his regular Thursday press conference. “Although, parts of southern Ohio where omicron peaked much later than in the northeast haven’t yet seen as sharp a decline.”
The decline in current COVID-19 hospitalizations – from a peak of more than 6,700 on Jan. 11 to just over 2,800 on Wednesday – is statewide. As NBC4 reported Wednesday, all eight regions tracked by the Ohio Hospital Association, have seen a downward trend in COVID-19 admissions for the past week and three weeks.
More hospital systems are now able to resume full services, Vanderhoff said, and the Ohio National Guard can pull more resources away.
At the peak of omicron, about 2,000 guard members were deployed at 62 hospitals and 18 testing sites across the state, he said. Now, there are about 1,200 guard members at 28 hospitals and 13 test centers.
“But while the National Guard may be reducing its presence in our hospitals and our testing centers,” Vanderhoff noted, “it’s certainly not the time for us to let our guard down.”
A case rate of 100 per 100,000 people is considered high by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Ohio is still at more than five times that number. The highest counties, Vanderhoff said, are close to 20 times that level.
“While there’s no doubt we are quickly moving in the right direction,” he said, “it’s simply too early for us to declare victory, given the reality that thousands of Ohioans are still being diagnosed with COVID-19 each and every day.”