December was Ohio’s worst month for COVID-19 cases, deaths, hospitalizations
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – December 2020 saw the most COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations in Ohio of any month in the entire coronavirus pandemic.
Ohio recorded 244,369 cases of COVID-19, 1,985 deaths from the disease and 8,389 hospitalizations with the disease last month, the state’s 12th month of coronavirus infections. December’s numbers marked the worst of an autumn-winter spike that began in October and broke records month after month.
December’s nearly-one-quarter-million onset cases (when symptoms began) account for nearly 1 in 3 of Ohio’s pandemic total. Combined with November, the two months represent more than 65% of total cases.
Because of the state’s process of backdating cases to the onset date, December’s case count will still be considered preliminary and expected to rise until Jan. 14. (Although, numbers could still tick up afterward.)
Onset cases peaked in Ohio on Nov. 30 at 13,284 per day and had been decreasing for the first few weeks of December, but daily infections have crept up slightly since Christmas.
"We're kind of sitting here around 7,500 new cases per day," Gov. Mike DeWine said during his coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, "Again, it's been up and down, but it's sort of plateaued out for some time."
"The good news is, it's not going up appreciably; the bad news is, it's not going down," he added, "And it's at a very, very, very high rate."
December was by far Ohio's deadliest month of the pandemic, seeing 1,985 people in the state die from COVID-19. That is 537 more deaths than November, the previous record month.
Ohio’s deadliest day of the pandemic occurred in December, when 89 people died from COVID-19 on Dec. 10. In fact, 10 days last month saw more than 80 deaths, and 15 of the 16 deadliest days were in December.
December was also Ohio’s top month for hospitalizations with 8,389. That is more than 21% of the state’s pandemic total and about 42% when combined with November.
Ohio Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said during Tuesday's briefing that "our hospitals are extremely busy coming out of the holidays. And we've not even begun to see whether there will be an additional impact from our holiday week."
"Even as we press forward with vaccinations, we need to remember we have a lot of road ahead and we can't forget COVID safety," he said. "Wear our masks, keep our distance, wash our hands."