Ohio broke its daily record for the most newly reported COVID-19 cases with 1,525 on Friday, and this week will certainly pass last week for the highest number in a single week during the pandemic.

Also, the 3,952 COVID-19 cases between Wednesday and Friday were the most for a three-day period ever in the state. There were 1,277 reported cases Wednesday and 1,150 on Thursday.

The previous three-day record was April 18 to 20 with 3,812 — when the state stepped up testing at its prisons.

The record comes as the state is seeing a significant increase in testing of the general population. On Wednesday, the most recent date reported by the Ohio Department of Health, 22,123 people were tested. Of that amount, 5.8 percent of people tested positive for the virus.

Gov. Mike DeWine and health officials have said increased testing plays a part in the increased number of cases, but it has more to do with community spread, particularly family gatherings, parties and funerals.

The 1,525 reported cases Friday surpassed the previous high of 1,380 on April 19. The third-most cases is 1,317 on April 20, fourth-most is 1,301 on July 2 and fifth-most is 1,277 on Wednesday.

The record high for cases in a week was last week with 6,728. But that will be surpassed today as there were 6,673 reported cases as of Friday. That’s an average of 1,112.2 per day — the first week during the pandemic that the average exceeded 1,000 daily cases in Ohio. Last week’s average was 961.1 cases per day.

The third-highest is the week of June 21 with 4,391 cases and fourth is the week of April 19 with 3,691.

Also, during these past 13 days, there have been 13,401 reported cases. As of Friday, there was a total of 62,856 COVID-19 cases in Ohio for the entire pandemic. That means 21.3 percent of all cases occurred in the past 13 days.

Of those with the virus, 43,435 have recovered and 3,032 have died.

The number of reported deaths in Ohio this week, not including today, was 125, according to the state Department of Health. That’s the most since 133 were reported during the week of June 14, but far from the high of 284 reported during the week of May 17.

It is common for reported deaths and cases to lag behind actual ones because of delays in reporting data by local health districts, as well as the time it takes to file COVID-19 death certificates and determining if the virus was the reason for the fatality and / or illness.

There also appears to be a disconnect between local health districts and the Ohio Department of Health.

For example, the Trumbull County Combined Health District reported 80 COVID-19 fatalities in the county Friday while the state lists 77.

Of the 80 reported COVID-19 deaths in Trumbull County, 11 occurred since Sunday — 13.8 percent of all of the deaths from the virus in just six days.

Trumbull is one of 12 counties in the state listed at level 3 (red) that requires residents to wear a mask, but there are exceptions.

Also, there are 1,051 cases in Trumbull as of Friday, an increase of 122 since Sunday — 11.6 of all cases in the county during the pandemic were reported in those six days.

Mahoning County had 1,907 cases as of Friday, an increase of 89 since Sunday.

Columbiana County had 1,357 cases as of Friday, an increase of 62 since Sunday.

The Columbiana County Health District reported that 890 cases are inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution in Elkton and 90 are at long-term care facilities.

Also, all but seven people in the county with the virus have recovered, the district reported.

This week, not including today, there were 19 reported deaths reported in the Mahoning Valley — 11 in Trumbull and eight in Mahoning. There were no deaths reported in Columbiana County this week. Five COVID-19 deaths were reported in the Valley before March 29.

Overall, there are 379 COVID-19 deaths in the Valley: 239 in Mahoning (including 43 in Youngstown), 80 in Trumbull and 60 in Columbiana.

Mahoning has the fourth-most deaths among Ohio’s 88 counties while Trumbull has the eighth-most and Columbiana has the 10th-most.

COVID-19 by the numbers

The number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in counties in the region and statewide as of Friday:

County Cases Hospitalizations Deaths

Mahoning 1,907 376 239

Trumbull 1,051 237 80

Columbiana 1,357 158 60

Ohio 62,856 8,701 3,032

SOURCE: Ohio Department of Health