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About 1 in every 55 Ohioans was diagnosed with COVID-19 in just the past two weeks.
The COVID-19 statistics in Ohio keep getting worse with the state again breaking its record for most virus cases per 100,000 residents.
It was the fourth straight week with record-high COVID-19 cases per 100,000.
The 1,818.8 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents for the period between Dec. 23 and Wednesday is up from 1,364.7 cases last week, according to Ohio Department of Health data reported Thursday.
It's an increase of 33.3 percent in a week and more than triple the rate from five weeks ago.
It's also the ninth-straight week with an increase in COVID-19 cases per 100,000.
Last week was the old record. Before that, 1,009.6 cases per 100,000 residents two weeks ago and the 783.2 cases per 100,000 three weeks ago were the high points during the pandemic.
The state was at 718.5 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 four weeks ago and 601.1 five weeks ago.
The state's cases are more than 18 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. It hasn't been below that since July 29 when 77.4 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents was reported by the ODH.
The highest COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents this week among Ohio's 88 counties was Erie with 2,869.4, and the lowest was Holmes with 418.6 cases per 100,000 residents.
The ODH reported 19,442 new COVID-19 cases Thursday. The daily number of COVID-19 cases has been above 19,000 every day since Dec. 29 except for Monday when 18,942 cases were reported.
In just the first six days of January, the ODH has reported 116,171 new COVID-19 cases in the state.
Also, the ODH reported yet another new record for COVID-19 hospitalizations Thursday with a total of 6,457. The state has set COVID-19 hospitalization records daily since Dec. 26. On that day, there were 4,786 COVID-19 hospitalizations.
VALLEY RATES
Mahoning County's rate of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 was higher than the state, while Trumbull and Columbiana counties were lower. Also, Mahoning and Trumbull were in the top 20 among Ohio's 88 counties for the highest rate this week.
Mahoning is 10th in the state this week with 2,010.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.
Mahoning was at 11th last week with 1,281.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.
It was 19th two weeks ago with 865 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, 41st three weeks ago with 771.4 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, 44th four weeks ago with 774.9 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and 20th five weeks ago with 778.8 COVID-19 cases per 100,000.
Trumbull is 18th this week with 1,733.6 cases per 100,000 residents.
It was 17th last week with 1,152.7 cases per 100,000 residents.
Trumbull was 28th two weeks with 794 cases per 100,000 residents, 42nd three weeks with 765.8 cases per 100,000 residents, 19th four weeks ago with 896.1 cases per 100,000 residents and 14th five weeks ago with 816.8 cases per 100,000.
Columbiana is 46th this week with 1,300.5 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.
It was 40th last week with 876.5 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.
It was 45th two weeks ago with 727.3 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, 43rd three weeks ago with 755.3 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, 32nd four weeks ago with 840.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and13th five weeks ago with 821.5 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.