'Troubling' COVID-19 Increase In OH; Officials Urge Vaccination

COLUMBUS, OH — A "troubling increase" in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Ohio has medical officials again urging all eligible people to get a vaccine as soon as possible.

Ohio is now approaching 200 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, said Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, director of the Ohio Department of Health. On July 7, the state had a case rate of 17.6 per 100,000 residents. There has also been an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and ventilator use.

"We have heightened concern as hospitals in other states are beginning to turn away elective procedures," Vanderhoff said. "The best way to protect yourself from COVID-19 is choosing to receive a vaccine."

The increase in cases and hospitalizations is attributable to the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus, Vanderhoff said. The Ohio Department of Health tracks the rise of the variant through genomic sequencing of positive test results, Vanderhoff said. That process can take three to four weeks, so data can lag, but the latest batch of sequencing analysis found the delta variant was responsible for nearly all cases in Ohio.

The delta variant is more contagious than any previous variant of the COVID-19 virus, Vanderhoff said, and may be more harmful to anyone who contracts it.

"It is now more contagious than the common cold or the flu. It also appears to be more dangerous. People infected with the delta variant may have a higher risk of pneumonia or death," Vanderhoff said.

The best way to protect yourself from the delta variant is to get a COVID-19 vaccine, he said.

Yet Ohio legislators have thrown up obstacles to mandating vaccines and are considering barring public schools from requiring masks indoors. Senate Bill 209 would prohibit both schools and businesses from requiring masks, while House Bill 244 bars schools from requiring students or staff receive a COVID-19 vaccine (at least until the vaccines receive full FDA approval).

Battling Vaccine Hesitancy

The majority of Ohio's recent COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations are among unvaccinated people, Vanderhoff said. Across the state, 98 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations are of unvaccinated people.

"Problems from COVID-19 can last long beyond your initial infection. There can be long-term damage to the lungs, hearts, kidney, brain or blood clots and blood vessel problems," Vanderhoff said.

Some people who test positive for COVID-19 can also suffer long-term symptoms (these people are sometimes called long-haulers). Long-lasting symptoms can include chest and stomach pain, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, and persistent loss of taste and smell.

"This is a vaccine-preventable illness, with vaccines that are very effective and safe," Vanderhoff said.

During his Thursday morning news conference, Vanderhoff was joined by Dr. Steven Burdette, chief of infectious diseases at Wright State University and Miami Valley Hospital.

Burdette said his COVID-19 wards are now filled with increasingly younger and unvaccinated people. He said many of his patients were seemingly healthy and active a week or two before being admitted.

"Our COVID-19 intensive care unit is full of patients who are unvaccinated. It is no longer a geriatric service. We have younger patients. We have patients born after 2000, several born after the 1990s and 1980s, a whole bunch born in the 1970s. We're seeing younger people, and many don't have a reason to be unvaccinated," Burdette said.

He added that anyone still weighing getting a COVID-19 vaccine should register for a vaccination appointment as soon as possible. He emphasized the vaccines are effective at protecting recipients from the delta variant.

"If we were seeing patients dying from the vaccine, they would have been in our facility and we would've been involved. We haven't seen that. But every week, we see people dying from COVID-19," he said.

"This is now the most-studied therapeutic in the history of medicine," Burdette added. "We have not tracked and monitored this many millions of people before. Nothing has been more scrutinized than these vaccines. Some people do have long-term issues from the vaccine, but for every one of those there are dozens and dozens and dozens of people who have serious complications from the virus."