Increase of 77 COVID-19 deaths and 1,842 new cases reported in Ohio in last 24 hours

By Chris Anderson | February 24, 2021 at 1:49 PM EST - Updated February 24 at 1:52 PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - As of Wednesday, the Department of Health reported 17,045 Ohioans have died from the coronavirus with at least 959,995 cases statewide since the start of the pandemic.

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Gov. Mike DeWine did not schedule a COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday.

The 24-hour increase of 1,842 reported cases is a cumulative of all positive test results as a lagging indicator the Ohio Department of Health received on Wednesday; not a total number of new infections reported in a single day.

Also, 77 new deaths were included in the daily totals. The state is continuing to reconcile death statistics due to a previous underreporting problem.

“The Bureau of Infectious Disease and the Bureau of Vital Statistics continue to reconcile death data. This process is ongoing as the teams complete a deep review of the data. This review will result in some fluctuations in death numbers moving forward.”

An additional 135,594 total cases and 2,545 deaths are presumed to be linked to COVID-19 under the CDC expanded definitions and included in the Ohio Department of Health’s reporting.