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CLEVELAND, Ohio – COVID-19 vaccination rates are on the rise in Ohio, possibly in response to warning from health experts that the unvaccinated are at risk of becoming ill with the highly transmissible delta variant, which is becoming prevalent in the state.
As of Sunday, 59,693 people have received a first dose in the past week, according to cleveland.com tracking daily reports from the Ohio Department of Health.
That’s 8,528 per day, the highest point since June 19.
To date, Ohio has reported 5,773,576 first doses, which represents about 58% of Ohio’s eligible population and 49% overall (including children too young to be vaccinated).
The total includes 169,877 out-of-state residents vaccinated in Ohio, but a number of Ohioans have been vaccinated out-of-state, including people working in neighboring states and those having homes part of the year elsewhere.
Ohio residents appear to be heeding warnings from health officials about the need for protection against the highly transmissible delta variant that is becoming prevalent in the state.
Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, chief medical officer for the Ohio Department of Health, recently said that anyone who has not received a COVID-19 vaccine is very likely to develop an infection at some point.
“It’s really just a matter of time,” Vanderhoff said during a virtual press briefing at the end of July. “That’s when, not if, an unvaccinated individual develops COVID-19. “
The delta variant accounted for more than 36% of all infections that were sequenced in Ohio during a two-week period ending July 3, Vanderhoff said. It accounted for less than 1% of infections just a month earlier.
It is clear that the spread of the delta variant – which is more transmissible than previous strains of the virus – dramatically increases the risk for Ohio residents who have not received a vaccine, said Dr. Amy Edwards, a specialist. from pediatric infectious diseases to university hospitals. Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, which also took part in the July press conference.
“There is no doubt about it. Now that the delta variant is here, [the unvaccinated] will get sick with COVID, ”Edwards said.
On the day of Vanderhoff’s virtual press conference, Ohio had received an average of 5,780 first doses of vaccine per day for the previous seven days. Currently, the number up to Sunday is 8,528, an increase of 48%.
While Ohio in March and early April reported an average of over 60,000 first doses per day, the number generally tended to decline in late spring and early summer, with the exception of the period after children ages 12 to 17 became eligible around the time Governor Mike DeWine started the lottery.
But the daily average dropped to an average of 4,477 per day (over seven days) on July 9. Since then it has generally increased. The daily average reached 5,216 in the week before Sunday July 18 and 7,267 per day in the week before Sunday July 25 before reaching 8,528 for an average Sunday (yesterday).
Over two days last week, Thursday (10,519) and Friday (10,292), ODH reported more than 10,000 first doses for the first time since June 17.
The upward trend in vaccination in Ohio is also being seen in other parts of the country.
Nationally, vaccinations are on the rise in some states with the strongest summer outbreak of COVID-19, White House officials recently said. Several states with the highest proportions of new infections experienced higher vaccination rates than the country as a whole, including Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri and Nevada.
Rich Exner contributed to this story.
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