The Ohio Department of Health diagnosed 1,353 new cases of COVID-19 between Saturday and Sunday, the second day in a row that diagnoses have risen by over 1,000.
In a Thursday news conference, Ohio Department of Health director Amy Acton acknowledged that day-over-day virus totals would likely continue to rise in proportion to the number of tests being run: “The more we can test, the more we’ll discover."
However, she reminded Ohioans that current testing remains limited to high-risk groups, and official numbers — even large ones, even with increased testing — still capture only "the tip of the iceberg."
As of Sunday afternoon, Ohio had recorded 11,292 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic and made “probable” diagnoses of 310 more. Four hundred fifty-three people formally diagnosed with the virus have died; eighteen more who did not receive a diagnosis have been deemed probable victims.
The median age of an Ohio COVID-19 patient sits at 52, but the virus has sickened infants before their first birthday and seniors as old as 106.
Of special note: As of Saturday, when the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction released its most recent numbers, inmates at state prisons comprised a little less than 15% of all known COVID-19 patients in Ohio.
A total of 1,441 inmates had been diagnosed by Saturday afternoon. The majority are housed at the Marion Correctional Institution in Marion, Ohio, now considered one of the most significant COVID-19 hotspots in the state.
