CINCINNATI — Hamilton County Public Health is reporting a decrease in COVID19 cases for the first time in a month.
“We’ve seen a significant decline in cases,” said county health commissioner Greg Kesterman. “However, we have so much COVID-19 in our community. Every single district in Hamilton County is impacted by COVID-19.”
According to Kesterman, 1,129 new cases of COVID were reported Tuesday. That’s more than half the amount of cases reported on January 16, which was 2,470 cases. Currently, the county has a positivity rate of 14.25%, according to the CDC.
“I am very optimistic that we’ve reached the peak but until we have a little more data, it’s hard to say,” said Kesterman. "But, many things are trending in the right direction.”
“The optimism is about the trend, not so much the number because the number is very high. These numbers are still very high, it’s the trend going down that gives us some optimism,” said Commissioner Denise Driehaus.
Although cases are declining, hospitalizations are remaining steady.
“We were at what was a peak last week at 1,030 COVID hospitalizations,” said Tiffany Mattingly, with the Health Collaborative. “We had a nice little decrease over the weekend. We saw that climb over the last few days.”
On Wednesday, 995 people were hospitalized with COVID in the region.
Mattingly said hospitalizations typically decrease a few weeks after the case rate declines.
“We’re just seeing it fluctuate between 80 and 100 admissions on a daily basis,” she said. “I am not hanging my hat on any of this right now. I’m just too cautious to be optimistic at the moment.”
Mattingly said even if hospitalizations do plateau, people should keep in mind: “it’s a plateau that’s an incredibly high level. Nothing we’ve ever seen before.”
You can check your county's latest case count in the map below:
