CLEVELAND — For the first time in nearly a month, Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish and county health leaders are set to hold a COVID-19 briefing this afternoon.
We will stream the 2:30 p.m. news conference live at WKYC.com, the WKYC app, Facebook Live, and YouTube.
The update from Budish and Cuyahoga County Health Commissioner Terry Allan comes just two days after the state's COVID-19 health orders were removed by Gov. Mike DeWine.
The promising news is that coronavirus case numbers across the state are declining. On Thursday, the Ohio Department of Health reported that the number of cases per 100,000 people had fallen to 54.9.
However, state health leaders noted this week that vaccination numbers had declined in the second week of the Ohio Vax-a-Million lottery.
The week the lottery was announced, the state saw over 147,000 new vaccinations. During week two, that number jumped to nearly 190,000 doses administered. During week three, however, only 128,000 vaccinations were put in arms - about 60,000 fewer than the week prior.
Even with fewer people vaccinated this week than last, the number being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals has fallen. MetroHealth recently reported that it will close one of its ICUs, because it no longer needs it to treat COVID-19 patients.
And while hospital rates seem to continue to fall, University Hospitals officials say that virtually every COVID-19 patient recently treated has been unvaccinated.
"We’ve not seen a single patient who’s been vaccinated end up on a ventilator. We’ve not seen a single person who’s been vaccinated with a normal immune system even need oxygen," says Dr. Keith Armitage, infectious disease specialist at University Hospitals.
Ohio ranks 26 out of the 50 states for the percentage of people fully vaccinated. Around 40 percent of Ohioans are now fully vaccinated.
3News' January Keaton contributed to this report
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