In 2020, the world faced a collective struggle when COVID-19 spread worldwide. Countries tried to mitigate the disastrous effects of this virus by going into lockdown, but COVID-19 was ravenous. Luckily, new infections, hospitalizations and deaths are decreasing steadily thanks to measures like masking, vaccination and quarantine.

According to an article updated earlier this month by The New York Times, the United States as a whole was averaging 4,328 new COVID-19 hospital admissions every day. Ohio residents made up 139 of these hospitalization cases, but that figure reflected a 2 percent decline from the number of cases two weeks prior.

However, it is important to note that, since the CDC stopped reporting data on cases in May of this year, this data was “self-reported by individual hospitals” and does not include the number of COVID-19 infections that did not require hospitalization. In addition to this, the article notes that “results of [COVID-19] tests are no longer required to be reported to the federal government, so test positivity rates may be less reliable.”

The article includes an interactive map showcasing data on current COVID-19 hospitalizations collected by the CDC, allowing readers to click on different areas of the country to view local COVID-19 statistics. This map indicates that only eight people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Portsmouth.

While COVID-19 numbers appear to be declining, the CDC still recommends that “everyone aged [5] years and older should get [one] dose of an updated COVID-19 vaccine to protect against serious illness from COVID-19.” However, if you have recently been infected with COVID-19, the CDC recommends delaying updating your vaccine by three months.

Readers may visit https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html to learn more about COVID-19 and how it is affecting our country and county.