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The Ohio Department of Health reported 685 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the lowest number of cases reported since Sept. 8.
The state’s 21-day average continues to stay around 1,000 cases, with a slight downward trend.
Daily New Confirmed & Probable COVID-19 Cases In Ohio
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On Tuesday, Ohio reported 145,850 total COVID-19 cases and 4,635 deaths. The state has had 14,899 hospitalizations and 3,210 ICU admissions.
At his coronavirus briefing Tuesday, Gov. Mike DeWine said the state is seeing a decline in its COVID-19 positivity rate, with a seven-day average positivity rate of 2.9 percent. The seven-day moving average of testing is 32,000 tests per day and growing, he said.
The state unveiled a new online dashboard tracking COVID-19 demographic case data by race and ethnicity. Residents can access demographic information on coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths by county and compare it to Ohio’s population as a whole.
“This dashboard helps better track health inequities and disparities,” he said. “This data can help put critical decisions into context for policymakers."
The governor said improving data collection and reporting as well as creating a publicly available dashboard were recommendations that came out of the COVID-19 Minority Health Strike Force.
The combination of back-to-school efforts and the coming colder weather will lead to more time indoors, where the virus is more likely to spread, DeWine warned on the first day of fall.
Barberton Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Ramnytz, who also spoke during the briefing, said the Summit County school district was able to give parents a choice between in-person and virtual learning and therefore put more distance between students who are inside together.
“About 1,200 students chose remote and we have about 2600 students that chose in-school instruction, which actually made it a little bit nicer. We have about 15 or less in each classroom,” he said.
Ramnytz has been particularly impressed with younger students in his district.
“We started Barberton preschool here about two or three years ago and our 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds are wearing those masks every day and they know the 6-foot distance as well,” he said.
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