Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Tuesday that he has tested positive for COVID-19, noting rising levels of the virus across the state.
DeWine’s office said the governor tested positive Tuesday morning after experiencing “mild cold-like symptoms … including sneezing and a runny nose.”
Following a doctor’s recommendation, DeWine’s office said the patient was started on Paxlovid, an antiviral drug used to treat COVID-19.
DeWine’s office said the governor’s press release said the dominant COVID-19 variant circulating in the state is KP.3.1.1., a member of the omicron family of viruses, and that cases have been rising for months.
“The number of COVID-19 cases and detections of COVID-19 in wastewater have been increasing in Ohio since late June,” DeWine’s office said in a release. “While hospitalizations, which are a good indicator of disease severity, have increased slightly across most of the United States, they are not currently increasing in Ohio.”
The CDC estimated that the KP.3.1.1. variant accounted for 36.8% of all U.S. cases in the two weeks ending Aug. 17.
State data shows an raise in COVID-19 hospitalizations, with 238 reported in the last week and a three-week average of 190. Over the past three weeks, hospitalizations have increased from 141 to 192, with the most recent report coming in at 238.
The Ohio Department of Health said the number of cases “has not approached the levels seen earlier this year,” such as in January, when 41,344 cases were reported, and “certainly not approaching the levels seen during the last large surge” in January 2022, according to a department spokesman.
While omicron variants have been blamed for the recent surge in cases, spokesman Ken Gordon said there is “no evidence these variants cause more severe disease.”
“Despite this, COVID remains a very real health threat, and any increase in cases reinforces how important it is to stay up to date on your vaccinations,” Gordon said in a statement.
When DeWine announced he had In August 2020 I tested positive (and then negative)just before he was to accompany then-President Donald Trump to Cleveland, the average number of cases over 21 days was 1,280. DeWine also tested positive for COVID in April 2022. AND in September 2023.
According to latest reports from ODHwhich releases COVID data once a week, the number of reported cases in the last week rose to 7,347, and that number has been steadily increasing to a three-week average of 6,656 cases.
In November 2020 months after the start of the country’s economic shutdown and DeWine closed restaurants and bars, but before vaccines became available, the governor announced increased mask enforcement and was once again considering closing restaurants and other public facilities. On the day he announced further measures to enforce the wearing of face masksThe state has recorded a fresh record for COVID cases: 7,101.
Nationally, the CDC reported 18.1% positive COVID-19 tests in the week ending Aug. 10, up from 17.9% the previous week. During the same week, 1.9% of all deaths in the United States were caused by COVID-19, up from 1.6% the previous week.
The governor’s office encouraged Ohioans to get their COVID vaccines up to date when they become available in the fall, and those who haven’t been vaccinated or haven’t received their last booster dose to “talk to your health care provider about staying up to date.”
As of Aug. 15, fewer than 12% of Ohioans had updated their COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC recommends that everyone six months of age or older get the updated vaccine “to protect against potentially serious outcomes from COVID-19 this fall and winter, regardless of whether they have ever been previously vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine.”
“To date, hundreds of millions of people have safely received COVID-19 vaccine as part of the most intensive vaccine safety monitoring in U.S. history,” the CDC said. in the edition.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration could approve an updated vaccine “as soon as this week,” after which the CDC will issue detailed recommendations, ODH said.
“The new vaccine can be expected to be available to the general public in September,” ODH said.
