COVID-19 Variant Driving Uptick In Ohio Cases, Hospitalizations

COLUMBUS, OH — Ohio is seeing a sustained uptick in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, driven largely by the B.1.1.7 UK strain of the virus.

More than half of Ohio counties saw an uptick in new cases this past week, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Thursday. After setting a COVID-19 case rate goal of 50 cases per 100,000, Ohio has seen its case rate grow steadily. Ohio currently has a COVID-19 case rate of 183.7 cases per 100,000.

"We can still turn this around, if more people continue to get vaccinated. This is a race, this is a life or death race. One third of Ohioans have now been vaccinated, and we need to keep working as fast as we can," DeWine said.

Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, the chief medical officer for the Ohio Department of Health, said the UK variant of COVID-19 is more contagious and more deadly than other strains of the virus. More than 700 cases of the variant have now been confirmed in Ohio.

"Our variant count is a sample. What's important is not the absolute number, it's the trend of the numbers we observe," Vanderhoff said. Based off Ohio's numbers, Vanderhoff said "I am confident that we will see more and more variant cases. I'm quite confident that the variant will be the dominant virus that we are dealing with."

Vanderhoff clarified that the B.1.1.7 UK strain will soon be the most prevalent version of COVID-19 in Ohio.

Nationwide, the CDC has confirmed 12,505 cases of the UK variant, with other variants comprising a few hundred confirmed cases thus far. Officials expect the UK strain to soon become the dominant strain. The issue of determining which variant is responsible for an infection requires complex lab work, and equipment that is not widely available.