COLUMBUS, Ohio — There are fewer available hospital beds to treat COVID-19 patients than the previous week, according to the latest data released by the Ohio Department of Health.

Each week, Spectrum News 1 speaks with Eye on Ohio: Ohio Center for Journalism about the latest hospital bed data. The organization collects the data from the state health department and looks for possible trends.

The latest data was reported to Eye on Ohio on April 16. The data shows 1,878 available Med/Surg beds. The beds are occupied by the average patient hospitalized for COVID-19. The data also shows 461 intensive care unit beds were available on the same day. 

These numbers are a decrease from the week before. The Ohio Department of Health reported 3,677 available Med/Surg beds and 852 available ICU beds on April 9.

Lucia Walinchus is the executive director for Eye On Ohio. She said two main factors may explain the decrease.

"As things are opening up more people might get infected and that could be an issue, but also we need to keep in mind that we're looking at after a holiday, so people have come together and they've probably seen each other, so there is one part of more people being together and then there is the second part of just there are fewer people available to work on a holiday period," Walinchus said.

When there are fewer people to staff the beds, there are fewer beds available.

Walinchus said the state is also seeing a decrease in ventilators and personal protective equipment.

On April 16, the state reported 1,196 ventilators. There were 1,462 available on April 9.

Click here to view the latest data from Eye on Ohio.