Seven months into pandemic, local hospitals see highest number of COVID-19 patients as state sets record

On the day Ohio reported its largest single day increase in new COVID-19 hospitalizations, WHIO has learned hospitals in the Miami Valley are seeing a substantial rise in patients as well.

Kettering Health Network reported Tuesday, it is seeing its highest rates of hospitalization for coronavirus since the pandemic started in March.

“We’ve certainly seen an increase over the last few weeks,” said Dr. Jeffrey Weinstein, patient and safety officer at Kettering Health Network. “We’re really reaching a peak right now compared to previously.”

Weinstein said health officials anticipated the rise in hospitalizations after seeing new cases hit more than two thousand daily statewide on multiple occasions last week, twice setting new daily records. Typically, he said, hospitals will subsequently see a rise in patients. And that trend has played out statewide, with 216 new hospitalizations reported Tuesday across Ohio.

Governor Mike DeWine called on Ohioans, again, to follow health guidelines, particularly wearing of masks and social distancing.

“I think the thing we have to remember is that these numbers will not change unless we change,” DeWine said.

Meanwhile, the big question for hospitals: how long will the upward trend in new cases continue?

Weinstein said it certainly weighs on health care workers on the front lines.

“They’ve been doing great work, but one of the things is it wears on them, as you would imagine, particularly because we don’t see an end in sight right now,” he said.

Cox Media Group