Virus rates hit new highs in Ohio | News, Sports, Jobs

Ohio again shattered its record for the most COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.

And that doesn’t even count those who tested positive with at-home kits and didn’t see a doctor or go to a hospital.

It was the third straight week with record high COVID-19 cases per 100,000.

The 1,364.7 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents for the period between Dec. 16 and Wednesday is up from 1,009.6 cases last week, according to Ohio Department of Health data reported Thursday.

It’s an increase of 35 percent in a week and 254 percent from what it was five weeks ago.

Almost 1.4 out of every 100 Ohioans was diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past two weeks.

It’s also the eighth straight week with an increase in COVID-19 cases per 100,000.

Last week was the old record and prior to that the 783.2 cases per 100,000 residents two weeks ago was the high point.

The state was at 718.5 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 three weeks ago, 601.1 four weeks ago and 538.2 cases per 100,000 five weeks ago.

The state’s cases are nearly 14 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 with 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 Cuyahoga with 3,023, and the lowest was Holmes with 345.8 cases per 100,000 residents.

Also, there were 19,774 new COVID-19 cases reported Thursday, the second most ever for a day in Ohio. Only Wednesday’s record of 20,320 had more cases since the start of the pandemic.

A monthly record of 305,280 COVID-19 cases has been reported so far in December in Ohio. The old record was 279,317 cases in December 2020.

The state certainly will exceed 2 million total COVID-19 cases today since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. As of Thursday, there were 1,995,497 total cases in the state.

The ODH reported a new record for COVID-19 hospitalizations Thursday with a total of 5,468. The previous record was Wednesday with 5,356 people.

VALLEY RATES

For the third week in a row, Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana had a lower rate of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents than the state, although Mahoning and Trumbull were in the top 20 among Ohio’s counties for the highest rates this week.

Mahoning is 11th in the state among the 88 counties this week with 1,281.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.

Mahoning was 19th last week with 865 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.

It was 41st two weeks ago with 771.4 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, 44th in the state three weeks ago with 774.9 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, 20th four weeks ago with 778.8 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and 17th five weeks ago with 726.8 cases per 100,000.

Trumbull is 17th this week with 1,152.7 cases per 100,000 residents.

Trumbull was 28th last week with 794 cases per 100,000 residents.

It was 42nd two weeks with 765.8 cases per 100,000 residents, 19th three weeks ago with 896.1 cases per 100,000 residents, 14th four weeks ago with 816.8 cases per 100,000 residents and 18th five weeks ago with 718.8 cases per 100,000.

Columbiana is 40th this week with 876.5 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.

It was 45th last week with 727.3 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.

Columbiana was 43rd two weeks ago with 755.3 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, 32nd three weeks ago with 840.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, 13th four weeks ago with 821.5 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and ninth five weeks with 758.2 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.