COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio surpassed 30,000 COVID-19 deaths on Friday as the state reports the second highest rate of new deaths among U.S. states.
What You Need To Know
- Ohio reported nearly 400 new COVID-19 deaths in Friday's report
- Officials said recent death reports are related to the delta variant
- In northern Ohio, cold-storage morgue trailers are being used
The Stark County Coroner's Office is using two cold-storage trailers to hold bodies due to extraordinary numbers of deaths from COVID-19 and other causes, including suicides and overdose deaths around the holidays, officials said.
Ohio Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said during a news conference Friday that recent COVID-19 death reports are predominantly from the delta variant surge due to reporting lag, even though health officials believe the omicron variant now represents nearly all of the state’s new cases.
“I think really what we're looking at in terms of any of that death-related data is that delta surge that passed that we've just been living through,” Vanderhoff said.
The Ohio Department of Health reported 398 new deaths on Friday, bringing the total to 30,072. The state reports deaths twice per week.
Some hospitals in northeast Ohio brought in refrigerated trucks in recent weeks, including Summa Health and Cleveland Clinic Akron General, according to health officials.
“There was a point, right before Christmas, where the case numbers and numbers of deaths were incredibly high, and the funeral home directors were having some problems keeping up with the demand for space,” said Beth Gatlin, spokesperson for the Center for Health Affairs, an association representing 36 northeast Ohio hospitals.
Gatlin said morgue capacity was strained by the rise in COVID-19 deaths as well as an increase in opioid deaths, among other causes. Capacity has significantly improved in recent days because deaths are not as high as they were prior to Christmas, she said.
“But, due to the continuation of the spike in COVID cases, good planning for what may be needed, as far as this resource if the case numbers and deaths do not fall, is the reason for keeping or bringing the morgue trucks into the region,” Gatlin said.
Ohio is the eighth state to report more than 30,000 virus deaths. The state's rate of average daily deaths per 100,000 residents ranks second only behind Wyoming. States use different methods of counting deaths, making it difficult to precisely compare their tallies.
On Friday, 6,570 patients were hospitalized in Ohio with COVID-19 as the state reports the third highest hospitalization rate per capita in the U.S.
Ohio's COVID-19 deaths reached 10,000 on Jan. 15, 2021, and the state crossed 20,000 deaths on June 8, 2021.
An Ohio Department of Health dashboard shows the vast majority of residents, who have died since the beginning of 2021, were unvaccinated. Ohio has reported 729 deaths among fully vaccinated residents, compared to 15,324 deaths among unvaccinated residents.
Central Ohio is in “good shape” as far as hospital morgue space, Jodi Keller of the Central Ohio Trauma System said Friday. Officials continue to monitor the situation closely.
“At this time, in region 4, which is central Ohio, we do not have any mobile morgues deployed,” Keller said. “The varying factor is how quickly the funeral homes are able to come to pick up the body. This can quickly impact the hospitals’ capacity when the funeral homes are very busy to.”