May 21, 2020

Today's COVID-19 blog examines COVID-19 fatalities through 5-21-20. The data continues to show that a disproportionate number of Ohio COVID-19 fatalities are among older Ohioans with 92 percent of all deaths accounted for by persons 60 and older. Conversely, no deaths have yet been recorded for persons under 20 and only 5 deaths (.3 percent) have been recorded for persons under thirty.

There have been more male fatalities (968) than female (867) and males tend to die somewhat younger. This would suggest that males are more likely to experience underlying diseases that would make them more vulnerable to the virus.

Over the last week, COVID-19 related fatalities increased by 19.7%. Take a look at the following tables and graphs for a more in-depth review of COVID-19 fatalities.

Webinar Information!

Ohio University and the Ohio Alliance for Innovation in Population Health will be hosting a webinar on Wednesday, June 24, 2020 from 12-1p. Join partners from around Ohio for Alliance Engagement in Community Impacted Initiatives. Registration is free at https://ohio.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eP9A04mGhBmbNHf.

May 18, 2020

Several readers have recently commented on how the change in day-to-day infections in most counties is small. So starting today, we will produce a week-to week comparison of infections for Monday and and another week-to week comparison of fatalities at the end of the week. We will continue to include a second report that covers another area of interest in these twice weekly reports. Please let us know what aspect of the pandemic you are most interested in, and we will do our best to obtain data and cover the topic.

For today's report we looked at how Ohio performed in comparison to the U.S. as a whole in deploying COVID-19 testing. While this is a complicated area and there are a number of different potential measures, our cursory analysis shows that Ohio's rate of increased testing was slightly better than the national average. 

A comparison of infections for 5-11 and 5-18 shows that statewide infections increased by 14.7 percent for the seven day period. Several counties in the Southeast, most notably Hocking, experienced growth rates that dramatically exceeded state averages. This is consistent with national reports that suggest slowing growth rates in urban communities and upticks in rural areas that have been previously less affected.

May 15, 2020

Analysis of Ohio COVID-19 infections and deaths since March 1st shows slow but steady growth for both categories through mid April, with a significant spike in counts caused by exponential spread in two (2) Central Ohio state prisons. As a result, infections have continued to occur at a steady but much lower pace while deaths have broadly declined.

As of May 15th there were 26,954 cases and 1,581 deaths. These numbers represent 2.3 and 3.1 percent increases over counts recorded for the previous day.

May 14, 2020

As of May 14, 2020 there are 26,357 Ohioans that have been infected with the COVID-19 Virus and 1,534 Deaths. This represents a 2.5 percent and 3.4 percent increase respectively in both categories. 

A review of total COVID-19 tests and deaths across the nation reveals there are a total of 9,974,726 tests and 78,343 nationwide fatalities as of today. This is equal to 520 tests for every death. Generally speaking, we assume that those states where the ratio of tests to deaths is high, are doing a better job of deploying tests than those states where the number of tests to deaths is small. Ohio ranks 42 out of the U.S. states and territories with a ratio of 152 tests per COVID-19 fatality. 

May 13, 2020

As of May 13, 2020 Ohio has recorded 25,721 COVID-19 infections and 1,483 deaths. This represents 1.9 and 3.3 percent increases over yesterday. To date there are 198 cases and 9 deaths per 100,000 population. 

Analysis at the county level shows dramatic variation in both infection and death rates with Marion County reporting an infection rate 18 times higher than the state average and Mahoning County reporting a death rate six times higher than the state average.

May 12, 2020

There have been a total of 25,250 Ohio COVID-19 cases and 1,436 deaths as of May 12, 2020. This represents a 2 percent increase in cases and a 6 percent increase in deaths over the May 11th numbers.

A review of deaths by sex and age shows that more males (769) have died than females (667). As noted in previous blogs, elderly Ohioans are at significantly greater risk than younger Ohioans, with 51.5 percent of all deaths accounted for by persons older than 80. While this generalization is true for both males and female, males tend to die earlier than females, presumably because males are more likely to experience underlying conditions that make them vulnerable to fatal complications.