COLUMBUS, Ohio — The number of reported hospitalizations hit a single-day high on Tuesday, with 708 hospitalizations.
Jennifer Hollis, a critical care nurse at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, described what it is like inside the COVID-19 unit.
"There are a lot of ventilators. It’s a lot of people alone in the rooms by themselves,” Hollis said.
Hollis has worked at the hospital for the last eight years. She said these past two have been the hardest she’s ever experienced.
"It's hard to watch these families go through this and it never gets any easier having to watch people watch their parents pass,” she said. "I just wish that people would get vaccinated and wouldn't see it as a political issue because it's not because what we're seeing in the hospital is a majority, that is unvaccinated.”
The data from the state backs up her claim. Since Jan. 1, 2021, more than 51,000 people have been hospitalized for COVID-19 in Ohio. Less than 3,000 of those people were fully vaccinated.
"It's harder knowing that this could've been prevented, with the vaccine, with not gathering, with washing our hands, wearing masks in public,” said Hollis.
Hollis is holding onto hope every day she walks into work that the pandemic will ease.
"Throughout the pandemic that's all we continue to hope for,” said Hollis.
Hollis said that many hospital workers are burnt out, but they’ll continue to do their best to save lives.