COLUMBUS – While COVID-19 cases have declined dramatically in Ohio, they are increasing in the United States and health officials warn the pandemic could get even worse over the coming months.
“We need to take this opportunity to prepare for the fall,” Ohio Department of Health director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said Wednesday during a briefing.
The number of Ohioans being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals has plummeted 890% since January – to 582 from approximately 6,700 — and the number of deaths has dropped 16% in the past three weeks, Vanderhoff said.
But a third of the U.S. population lives in areas that are considered at higher risk for a surge in cases, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest. Officials say those are areas where people should already be considering wearing masks indoors.
“We need to be asking ourselves right now: how can we fully prepare for the future,” Vanderhoff said.
The Ohio Dept. of Health updates COVID-19 data weekly
Cases are expected to increase again when the weather turns colder and people in Ohio and other northern states spend more time indoors at the same time that protection from vaccines or earlier bouts with the virus might be waning.
Nationwide, the virus’ death toll reached 1 million last week, with cases rising 60% over the course of two weeks for an average of 86,000 per day.
OSU study: Booster shots offer vital protection
Researchers at OSU say a booster shot will provide “strong and broad” antibody protection against the range of omicron variants of the coronavirus in circulation.
In two new studies using serum from human blood samples, researchers at the university’s Center for Retrovirus Research and the Viruses and Emerging Pathogens Program in Ohio State’s Infectious Diseases Institute found that a third dose was required to generate a high enough concentration of antibodies to neutralize the BA.2 omicron variant and deltacron, a variant created by the exchange of genetic material between the delta and omicron strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
Recent national data have suggested that the BA.2 variant constitutes about 90% of COVID-19 cases in the United States.