Ohio health experts: New COVID-19 variants could drive winter surge
The level of coronavirus in Ohio communities is continuing to decline significantly.
But state health officials say it might not stay that way.
The director of Ohio's health department says case counts have dropped nearly 30 percent in the last two weeks.
But, this may not tell the whole story, because many at-home test results are not reported.
As we head into colder months, experts say new variants could drive another wave of the virus.
And that might coincide with the holiday season.
Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff says the single most important step to prepare yourself is to stay up to date with vaccinations.
That means getting the new bivalent booster that targets new variants.
Experts say, boosters are often going to be a variant behind but early data about protection from serious disease looks promising.
"We're going to have to watch because they're new variants, but I think broadly in the medical community we maintain a lot of confidence in the ability of our vaccines to offer us protection," Vanderhoff said.
According to the Ohio Department of Health dashboard, 744,000 Ohioans have received the updated booster shot.