Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, director of the Ohio Department of Health, urged Ohoians to get vaccinated while also saying Monday it appears COVID-19 cases are slowly beginning to decline across the state and across the nation.

“I know it has been a very long journey. We’re all tired of dealing with COVID-19, but I’d ask everyone to hang in there,” Vanderhoff said during a news conference. “Although our cases of COVID-19 remain extremely high, it is clear that our collective efforts really are paying off.”

Vanderhoff said he found “a little ray of sunshine” in that daily case reports “nearly every day” for the last seven or eight days show fewer cases than the comparable days the week before. He said that is an indication that cases may be cresting.

He reminded Ohians it’s early in the decline and asked everyone to remain “vigilant.”

“Remember that this wave that we are currently in, if it has indeed crested, it has crested at a level that was approaching the level that we were at before vaccinations in the middle of last winter, and that’s despite the fact that about 50 percent of those that were eligible in the state (when this wave began) were well protected against COVID-19,” Vanderhoff said.

THE NUMBERS

Statewide, the Ohio Department of Health reported 4,203 new cases Monday, bringing the total number of cases to 1,433,957.

While Monday’s new caseload is more than the new cases reported statewide on Sunday — 3,445 — and also more than last Monday’s report of 3,681, it is down from the number of new cases reported other days last week.

New cases reported in the state for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week were 7,283; 6,463; 6,530; 6,234; and 6,094, respectively.

Locally, 93 new cases were reported in Mahoning County and 27 in Columbiana County Monday, down from Sunday’s numbers, which were down from Saturday’s numbers. The case count in Mahoning County now sits at 28,565 and the count in Columbiana County is at 12,653

Trumbull County reported 90 new cases Monday, 69 new cases the day before, and 134 new cases the day before that. The total case count in Trumbull County is 21,238.

VACCINATION

Local vaccination rates remain below 50 percent, with 48.64 percent of Mahoning’s population and 46.25 percent of Trumbull population fully vaccinated, according to ODH data. In Columbiana County, 39.78 percent of the county’s population is vaccinated.

Statewide, 50.38 percent of the population is fully vaccinated.

Vanderhoff made a special plea to women who are or may become pregnant, asking them to get vaccinated to protect their own health and the health of their unborn children.

Through Sept. 27, there were more than 125,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in pregnant people, including more than 22,000 hospitalized and 161 deaths, with 22 of those deaths in August, according to data recently released by the CDC.

Vanderhoff said the majority of pregnant women are unvaccinated.

Dr. Lisa Egbert, president of the Ohio State Medical Association and a practicing OB-GYN, said during the news conference that studies have shown no increased risk of complications to pregnancy because of the vaccine, but COVID-19 itself poses many risks to pregnant women.

“Pregnancy is an immunocompromised state, which means you have a significant risk for COVID-19,” Egbert said.

The doctors said women who are pregnant and become infected with COVID-19 have an increased risk of preterm delivery, stillbirth and death.

Mothers who develop antibodies can pass those atibodies to their children before birth, according to Dr. Kamilah Dixon, an OB-GYN.

Antibodies can also be passed to children through breast feeding, Egbert said.

The doctors also said the studies show the vaccine causes no adverse affects for fertility, and that myth should be “thoroughly debunked.”

“Choosing to be vaccinated really can be the key to staying out of the hospital and to assuring that a new mom will be there for her infant,” Vanderhoff said.

REPORTING

Vanderhoff also noted that the CDC and the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists recently updated the case definition of COVID-19 to include those who are reinfected with the virus 90 days or more after a previous infection with COVID-19.

So far, anyone who was infected with COVID-19, recovered and was reinfected months later has been counted as only one case.

Starting with data from Sept. 1, reinfections will be counted as additional cases. The change does not retroactively affect case count data from before Sept. 1, Vanderhoff said.

Vanderhoff added, “It’s important to note that emerging information shows those that are not vaccinated are more than twice as likely to be reinfected.”