COLUMBUS, Ohio — Clearing a weekslong backlog of thousands of positive test results, Ohio health officials reported an artificially inflated total of 25,721 COVID-19 infections on Tuesday to push the pandemic case total to 510,018.
Disregarding around 13,000 backdated tests added to the total, Ohio also appeared to set a new one-day record for coronavirus infections
The total case number represents that one of every 23 Ohioans has contracted coronavirus a day short of the pandemic hitting the nine-month mark in Ohio.
The state also added 81 fatalities to Ohio's exploding death toll — now numbering 674 in December alone, with total deaths at 7,103.
The daily case number was inflated after the state decided to clear and count a backlog of about 13,000 positive results from less-reliable, rapid antigen tests dating back to Nov. 1, state officials said.
Subtracting that number from the 25,000 cases reported Tuesday would seemingly mean about 12,000 cases were counted in the typical reporting of the most recent day, potentially more than the one-day record of 11,885 on Nov. 23.
To put Tuesday's large number in context, the state reported 9,273 new COVID-19 infections on Monday, the fifth-highest daily total, as cases remain high after more than tripling during November. The three-week average stood at 8,521. State health officials did not immediately respond to questions.
In line with one-time federal recommendations, state and local health officials had been manually verifying positive antigen tests were accompanied by either virus symptoms or known contact with an infected person.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped its recommendation to verify antigen positives in August.
The state now has opted to follow that guideline due to an unmanageable workload accompanying increased use of antigen tests — with reported positives doubling to about 700 a day — amid the spike in COVID-19 cases.
Warning Ohio is "in a very dangerous stage" entering winter months expected to be afflicted with high numbers of cases, DeWine announced Monday he will extend Ohio's three-week, 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. COVID curfew scheduled to expire Thursday.
Other details and the length of the extension will be announced at DeWine's scheduled news conference on Thursday, the governor said. The state anticipates receiving its first shipment of virus vaccine next week, beginning a lengthy process of getting needles into arms.
Fears the pandemic and its economic fallout — including a record 1.93 million jobless claims in Ohio — would undercut the state tax take and require massive budget moves remain unfounded five months into the state's 2020-21 fiscal year.
Ohio's tax revenues came in $46.4 million or 2.3% above estimate in November and now stand $393.6 million or 3.8% above estimates for the fiscal year, according to preliminary figures from the Office of Budget and Management.
Sales and income taxes were above projections in November, with only the main business tax — the commercial activity tax — coming up slightly short.
DeWine, who expressed worries Ohio could have to drain its $2.7 billion rainy day fund to offset potential cuts, has adopted a wait-and-see stance toward spending reductions. The potential shortfall for this fiscal year was pegged at $2 billion at one point.
Meanwhile, a peer-reviewed paper in Health Affairs states that COVID19 vaccines, even if 95% effective and distributed according to projections, will not quickly counter soaring cases and deaths with the pandemic at raging nationwide.
At the current level of infections, even with vaccines, up to 10 million more cases and more than 160,000 additional deaths are possible in the next six months, wrote the authors, including Dr. Rochelle Walensky, President-Elect Joe Biden's choice to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
