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The number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 Ohioans is at an all-time high, having increased for six straight weeks with no signs of letting up.
The 783.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents for the period between Dec. 2 and Wednesday is up from 718.5 cases per 100,000 last week, according to Ohio Department of Health data reported Thursday.
It's an increase of 9 percent since last week and about 120 percent since cases started to rise six weeks ago.
The latest cases per 100,000 doesn't include 11,803 reported Thursday. Of that amount, 1,347 were part of an undercount of cases caused by "manual reporting errors at two laboratories," according to the ODH.
Not including the older cases added because of the errors, 10,456 cases were reported Thursday. That is the most for a single day in Ohio since 11,412 were reported Dec. 17, 2020.
The state was at 601.1 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 two weeks ago.
It was at 538.2 cases per 100,000 three weeks ago, 496.3 cases per 100,000 four weeks ago and 410.5 cases per 100,000 five weeks ago. The increase started six weeks ago when cases rose to 359.1 per 100,000.
Before the six weeks of increases of COVID-19 cases per 100,000, the state had six straight weeks of declines.
The state's cases are nearly eight times what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider to be high-transmission areas for COVID-19.
The CDC number for high transmission is 100 cases per 100,000.
The highest COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents among Ohio's 88 counties was Cuyahoga with 1,267.7 and the lowest was Holmes with 309.4 cases per 100,000 residents.
Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, ODH director, said: "We are in a very serious situation," and "We're continuing to see very high COVID-19 cases and very high rates of hospitalizations."
VALLEY RATES
Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana were in the upper half -- just barely -- among Ohio's 88 counties and, for the first time in a couple of months, had a lower rate of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents than the state.
Also, for the first time in six weeks, each county saw a reduction in cases per 100,000 -- though all are still high.
Mahoning is 41st in the state this week with 771.4 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.
Last week it was 44th in the state with 774.9 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.
It was 20th in the state two weeks ago with 778.8 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, 17th three weeks ago with 726.8 cases per 100,000 residents, 25th four weeks ago with 686.1 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and 28th four weeks ago with 533.1 COVID-19 cases per 100,000.
Trumbull is 42nd this week with 765.8 cases per 100,000 residents.
It was 19th last week with 896.1 cases per 100,000 residents.
Trumbull was 14th two weeks ago with 816.8 cases per 100,000 residents, 18th three weeks ago with 718.8 cases per 100,000 residents, 39th f our weeks ago with 577.9 cases per 100,000 residents and 32nd five weeks ago with 507.4 cases per 100,000.
Columbiana is 43rd this week with 755.3 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.
It was 32nd last week with 840.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.
Columbiana was 13th two weeks ago with 821.5 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, ninth three weeks with 758.2 cases per 100,000 residents, 14th four weeks ago with 753.8 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and17th five weeks ago with 677.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000.
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.
DECEMBER CASES
December is on pace through the first 16 days of the month to have the second-most COVID-19 cases for a month in Ohio since the start of the pandemic behind only December 2020, which reported 279,317 cases.
The state has had 129,125 COVID-19 cases through the first 16 days of the month, an average of more than 8,070 per day. This month is on pace to have more than 250,179 cases.
In addition to seeing the highest amount of COVID-19 cases in a year, ODH admitted on Tuesday "manual reporting errors at two laboratories" resulted in the undercount of 7,699 COVID-19 cases in the state between March 7 and Dec. 3 that were supposed to be added during the past three days.
However, only 3,912 underreported cases were listed in the last three days. ODH officials couldn't be reached to explain the discrepancy or whether more older cases would be added in other days.
Also, Gov. Mike DeWine and his wife, Fran, were exposed Monday evening to a person who has since tested positive for COVID-19, his office said Thursday. The two have no symptoms and tested negative Thursday. They will be tested daily and have postponed public events.
The DeWines were exposed to two people in November who tested positive, but neither tested positive for COVID-19. They are fully vaccinated and have received booster shots.