Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief
COLUMBUS, Ohio- Ohio's GOP governor said during a press briefing on Friday that hospitalizations of unvaccinated people in Ohio from the coronavirus are 98 percent greater in comparison to vaccinated people, though he has not issued any restrictions as he prepares for reelection in 2022 amid primary opponents and friction in his on party brought on primarily by COVID-19 orders he set forth during the height of the pandemic last year. (Those orders included statewide curfews, mask wearing mandates, and the temporary shut down of a host of businesses, including bars and in-house restaurants).
Also during his briefing the governor urged Ohioans who have not done so to get vaccinated and emphasized a clear distinction between what he says are disparities between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated in the Buckeye state.
A former U.S. senator and state attorney general, he said one group is safe and the other is not.
“We truly have two Ohios," Gov. Mike DeWine said on Friday regarding the discrepancies between vaccinated and unvaccinated Ohioans. "One group of people who are safe, one who are not."
COVID-19 cases continue to grow in Ohio and throughout the U.S. while vaccinations continue to decline, forcing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC ) to recommend that both fully vaccinated people and unvaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas with high transmission, a reversal of its previous position that vaccinated people could safely go mask free in public.
The Ohio Department of Health has released the latest number of COVID-19 cases in the state.
As of Aug 7, a total of 1, 4 million cases have been reported in Ohio since the start of the pandemic, leading to more than 60,000 hospitalizations and roughly 8500 ICU admissions. And nearly six million of the state’s population have at least started the vaccination process, which is about 49 percent.
ODH reported 26 deaths Friday, bringing the total to 20,556 deaths statewide.
Some 616,000 million people have died from the contagious disease nationwide, and roughly 4.2 million worldwide.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief COVID-19 medical adviser, has said that the increase in cases and hospitalizations coupled with a decline in vaccinations present a serious problem.
“We’re going in the wrong direction,” Fauci told reporters.
This news comes amid the surge of cases driven by the delta variant, a more contagious strain that is wreaking havoc on efforts to curb the cornavirus outbreak.
Data also show that most of the people in the U.S. who died from COVID-19 in 2021 were unvaccinated, and Black and Latino communities are suffering the most.
Blacks are dying at a rate three to five times higher than their White counterparts.
Andy Slavitt, a former adviser to the Biden administration on COVID-19, has predicted that 98 percent to 99 percent of the Americans dying of the coronavirus are unvaccinated. What database he is using to make such an assessment is unclear.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.