Licking County hits record weekly number of COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations

Michaela Sumner, Newark Advocate
·3 min read

Licking County saw a record number of reported COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations in the past week.

According to the Licking County Health Department, there are 62 current hospitalizations and 18 new deaths reported, bringing the total to 408 COVID-19 deaths for the county since the beginning of the pandemic.

On Thursday, Licking County Health Commissioner Chad Brown explained an elevated number of new cases reported this week — 3,120 cases — stems from a state data dump from a backlog of positive cases. The 3,017 active cases reported in Licking County, however, are significantly more than any other week's total.

Health officials had anticipated a surge in COVID-19 cases due to recent gatherings, and the more contagious omicron variant, but Brown said the number of new cases was compounded by the data dump.

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He also pointed out Licking County has recently seen an average of 300 additional COVID-19 cases daily, so there has been increase in cases.

Despite case numbers being up currently, Brown said this month Licking County is on track to have a lower number of recorded deaths compared to recent months. Brown said 20 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in January compared to a range of 40-50 monthly at the end of 2021.

Many of Licking County's COVID deaths have been recorded by physicians at Licking Memorial Hospital.

According to Vice President of Patient Care Services Heather Burkhart, a physician documents COVID-19 as cause of death if a patient received a positive COVID test then was hospitalized and treated for the virus. She added a patient might have chronic health issues that contributed to their death.

"Patients with these types of significant co-morbidities are less likely to survive a COVID infection," she explained. "In these cases, when a physician completes the death certificate, multiple causes of death may be listed. For example, COVID in the presence of end stage renal disease."

Burkhart said LMH has recorded 156 COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

Due to supply issues for COVID testing, Licking Memorial recently closed their drive-thru pick-up site for at-home test kits indefinitely. However, last week they announced they were-establishing their COVID-19 testing clinic to accommodate Licking County's growing need. They noted the clinic is only available to people showing symptoms of the virus who may have been in contact with a confirmed COVID-19 patient.

LMH directed anyone not showing symptoms or who need a test for occupational purposes or leisure activities to visit their local pharmacy for testing.

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The clinic is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. by appointment only at 131 McMillen Drive in Newark. Appointments must be scheduled through LMH's patient portal. The portal can be accessed at MyChart.LMHealth.org.

According to Brown, the Cleveland area has begun seeing a decline in COVID cases and Licking County is about a week behind that area, so he's hopeful the cases will begin to plateau and then decline.

For more information about COVID-19 and vaccination, visit LickingCoHealth.org or LMHealth.org.

Reported COVID-19 hospitalizations

  • Dec. 15: 39

  • Dec. 22: 40

  • Dec: 29: 45

  • Jan. 5: 50

  • Jan. 12: 54

  • Jan. 19: 62

Source: Licking County Health Department

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: COVID in Licking County: Deaths, hospitalizations hit weekly record