Trending
The number of COVID-19 cases in Ohio increased 17.5 times in just the past seven weeks and is showing signs of only getting higher as the state exceeded 7,000 daily cases for the second day in a row.
Ohio hasn't seen COVID-19 case numbers this high since January.
The state was at 472.4 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents for the period between Aug. 19 and Thursday, according to statistics provided Thursday by the Ohio Department of Health.
In comparison, the state was at 27 cases per 100,000 people July 15 -- seven weeks ago.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers 100 cases per 100,000 to be high-transmission areas for COVID-19 and recommends face masks while indoors at public places.
Ohio has six counties that have more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 residents with the lowest among the state's 88 counties being Ashtabula with 168.7 cases per 100,000.
Only one county in the state was above 100 cases per 100,000 on July 15.
The state was at 338.1 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 last week.
It was at 259.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents two weeks ago. Three weeks ago, it was 194.2 cases per 100,000. Ohio was at 125.1 cases four weeks ago and at 77.4 cases five weeks ago.
The delta variant among the unvaccinated, which spreads quickly, almost is entirely to blame for the increase Ohio has seen in cases in recent weeks, Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, ODH's director, said.
"Unfortunately, we are continuing to see (the delta variant) driving cases even higher in Ohio," he said Thursday.
Most of the counties with the highest cases per 100,000 residents are those with significantly lower vaccination rates, Vanderhoff said.
One out of every eight patients in hospitals in Ohio has COVID-19 and one in every five intensive-care unit patients has the virus, Vanderhoff said. Last Friday, those numbers were one in 10 and one in six, respectively, he said.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are about 10 times higher now than in early July in Ohio, Vanderhoff said.
"This is a hospital pandemic of the unvaccinated," he said.
IN THE VALLEY
The latest ODH ranking by county has Trumbull with the third-fewest cases with Mahoning and Columbiana in the lower third of the state's 88 counties.
But all three counties, like the rest of the state, continue to experience increases in the number of cases over the past few weeks.
Mahoning is 66th in the state with 377.8 COVID-19 cases per 100,000.
It was 56th last week with 306.5 COVID-19 cases per 100,000. Two weeks ago, it was 62nd with 220.4 COVID-19 cases per 100,000. It was 66th three weeks ago with 158.3 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents. It was 52nd four weeks ago with 110.6 cases and 56th five weeks ago with 59.9 cases.
Trumbull is 86th this week with 266.2 cases per 100,000 residents.
It was 87th last week with 203.6 cases per 100,000 residents. It was 75th two weeks ago with 198 cases per 100,000 residents. It was 64th three weeks ago with 162.1 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents. It was at 55th four weeks ago with 105.1 cases per 100,000 and 46th fifth weeks ago with 67.7 cases.
Columbiana is 61st this week with 413.2 cases per 100,000 residents.
Last week, it was 34th with 398.5 cases per 100,000 residents.
Two weeks ago it was 25th with 333.7 COVID-19 cases per 100,000. Three weeks ago it was 52nd in the state with 172.7 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents. It was 46th four week ago with 116.3 cases and 42nd five weeks ago with 67.7 cases.
The ODH measures cases per 100,000 residents among counties to get a fair comparison because total cases would result in more-populous counties ranking higher.
COVID-19 DATA
Of the past 10 days, all but two exceeded 4,000 cases. Of those 10, five had more than 5,000 daily cases, which hasn't happened in Ohio since January.
Thursday was the second day in a row with cases exceeding 7,000 though among the 7,012 cases reported Wednesday, 1,021 was the result of a backlog, according to the ODH.
The 7,087 new COVID-19 cases reported Thursday is up from the daily average of 3,929 for the past 21 days, according to the ODH.
Less than two months ago, the state was averaging about 260 cases per day.
The state had a total of 1,235,089 COVID-19 cases as of Thursday with 1,134,296 presumed recovered.
The ODH usually provides death information on Tuesdays and Fridays. It had 20,866 total COVID-19 deaths as of Tuesday.
Mahoning County had 24,496 total COVID-19 cases as of Thursday with 22,603 presumed recovered and 623 deaths.
Trumbull County had 18,119 total COVID-19 cases as of Thursday with 16,781 presumed recovered and 496 deaths.
Columbiana County had 10,220 total COVID-19 cases as of Thursday with 9,291 presumed recovered and 236 deaths.
VACCINATIONS
There were 6,094,081 people, 52.13 percent of the state's population, who had at least started getting inoculated as of 6 a.m. Thursday, including 12,599 in the previous 24 hours, according to the ODH.
In Mahoning County, 50.44 percent of the population (115,347 people) had received at least one dose while 48.21 percent of the population in Trumbull County (95,451 people) and 40.91 percent in Columbiana County (41,682 people) had as of 6 a.m. Thursday, according to the ODH.
There were 5,631,329 people, 48.18 percent of the state's population, who finished the vaccinations as of 6 a.m. Thursday, including 11,327 in the prior 24 hours.
In Mahoning County, 46.56 percent of the population (106,471 people) had completed the process and 44.21 percent of the population in Trumbull (87,531 people) and 37.8 percent of the population in Columbiana (38,515 people) had as of 6 a.m. Thursday.