Between Nov. 25 and Tuesday, Clark County had both the 80% and 20% occupancy for five straight days. Between that timeframe, occupancy topped at 87.6% on Nov. 28 before falling on Tuesday to 85.8%. The highest day for COVID patient occupancy was Monday with 23.9%, according to ODH.
The state’s advisory system ranges from level 1, or yellow as lowest to level 4 or purple as highest and most severe. Eight counties were given a purple ranking this week, the most since the system was unveiled in July. Those counties include Montgomery, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage, Richland, Stark and Summit.
Franklin County, who was at level 4 last week, moved back to level 3. Three counties, Madison, Fairfield and Cuyahoga, moved up to the level 4 watchlist.
The ODH uses seven indicators when judging what level to give a county.
Indicators hit include new cases per capita, sustained increase in new cases, proportion of cases not in a congregate spread, sustained increase in emergency department visits for COVID-like illness, sustained increase in outpatient visits for COVID-like illness, sustained increase in new COVID hospital admissions and ICU bed occupancy.
In addition to ICU bed occupancy, the county hit two more indicators this week: new cases per capita and proportion of cases not in a congregate spread.
Dr. Andy Thomas of the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center joined Gov. Mike DeWine’s press conference on Thursday to warn residents about rising ICU bed occupancy. Thomas said the state is already struggling and has yet to see the impact from Thanksgiving travel and gatherings in data.
“This is not the beginning of the end,” Thomas said. “This is not even the end of the beginning.”
Most coronavirus patients develop symptoms three to 10 days after they are exposed to the virus, Thomas said. From the onset of symptoms, it could take seven to 10 days before a patient is hospitalized and then about a week before they need to be placed on a ventilator. One or two weeks after a patient is placed on a ventilator is when hospitals are seeing patients die, Thomas said.
And due to a surge in hospitalizations, Ohio hospitals are starting to delay procedures and care, Thomas said.
“We’re in a really difficult spot here, and we’re just now heading into the most challenging three months of this pandemic,” Thomas said. “ICU beds are the area of capacity where we have the biggest strain across the state, especially in rural areas.”
On Wednesday, Ohio’s seven-day positivity rate passed 15%, placing the state on its own travel advisory. It’s the first time since April the state’s positivity rate surpassed 15%.
“It’s really bad news,” Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, ODH chief medical officer said Thursday. “Rising above 15% is being in a tornado. Ohio is in a tornado.”
While the increasing positivity rate is cause to worry, it is not cause to despair, Vanderhoff said.
“Together, I know we can slow this down,” he said.
Ohio reported just under 9,000 daily cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the state’s case total to 446,849, according to ODH.
The state recorded 8,921 cases between Wednesday and Thursday, the fifth-highest day the state has reported, DeWine said. On average, Ohio is reporting 8,209 cases a day.
Daily hospitalizations came in just under 400, with 396 reported. Thursday was the fourth straight day daily hospitalizations were over 300. There were 5,142 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Ohio as of Thursday. That’s the fourth day in a row there were more than 5,000 hospitalized.
Locally, 65 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 at Springfield Regional Medical Center, according to the Clark County Combined Health District.
Clark County had a total of 6,038 cases, 150 deaths and five probable deaths of the coronavirus as of Thursday, according to ODH.
Facts & Figures:
5: Days in a row Clark County had an ICU bed occupancy above 80% with more than 20% of that occupancy being used by COVID-19 positive patients
85.89%: Clark County’s ICU bed occupancy on Tuesday
22.63: Percentage of COVID-19 patients within the ICU bed occupancy
65: Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at Springfield Regional Medical Center as of Wednesday
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