CLEVELAND, Ohio -- With the delta variant of the coronavirus spreading in Ohio, the state’s chief medical officer on Wednesday offered a stark warning that anyone who hasn’t received a COVID-19 vaccine will almost certainly develop an infection.
The delta variant accounted for more than 36% of all infections that were sequenced in Ohio during a two-week period ending July 3, said Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, the chief medical officer for the Ohio Department of Health. It represented
fewer than 1% of infections just one month earlier.
The trend is likely to continue, as health experts have determined the delta variant is more transmissible than earlier strains of the virus. That means anyone who has not received a COVID-19 vaccine is highly likely to develop an infection at some point, Vanderhoff told reporters during a virtual news briefing.
“It is really now just a matter of time,” Vanderhoff said. “It is when, not if, an unvaccinated individual develops COVID-19.”
Vanderhoff offered the blunt assessment at a time when just 48.5% of Ohio’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and just 45.5% have been fully vaccinated.
That means more than half of the state’s residents are still highly susceptible to contracting the virus. This includes everyone under age 12, an age group not yet approved for vaccines. Approximately 57% of the age-eligible have been vaccinated.
The media briefing also came one day after
Ohio reported 744 new coronavirus infections and just before Wednesday’s report of 785 more cases, the state’s highest totals in nearly two months. Vanderhoff said the recent surge has largely been driven by the delta variant.
It’s clear the spread of the delta variant significantly increases the risk to any Ohio residents who haven’t received a vaccine, said Dr. Amy Edwards, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital who also took part in the media briefing.
“There’s no doubt about it. Now that the delta variant is here, [the unvaccinated] will get sick from COVID,” Edwards said.