For the second time in five days, Ohio is reporting its highest number of new COVID-19 cases in more than a month.

There were 2,458 new cases reported Tuesday, while 2,742 cases were reported Friday by the Ohio Department of Health.

The last time that many cases were reported in a single day was Feb. 23 with 2,775.

It’s also only the third time the state has exceeded 2,000 new cases in a day in March, with the other being 2,104 on March 18.

The 2,458 cases Tuesday is up from the daily average of 1,617 for the past 21 days. The 21-day daily average was 1,535 just a week ago, indicating COVID-19 cases are rising in the past seven days even though they are down considerably from the past four months.

The state had a total of 1,015,577 COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday with 964,712 presumed recovered and 18,609 deaths.

With an adjusted policy on how it reports COVID-19 deaths, the ODH will provide that information only on Tuesdays and Fridays.

There was an increase of 83 COVID-19 deaths since Friday, including one each in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.

Mahoning County had 20,195 total COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday with 19,069 presumed recovered and 575 deaths, according to the ODH.

Trumbull County had 14,988 total COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday with 14,036 presumed recovered and 452 deaths.

Columbiana County had 8,350 total COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday with 7,997 presumed recovered and 222 deaths.

VACCINATIONS

The ODH reported 3,332,481 people, 28.42 percent of the state’s population, at least had started getting the vaccine as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, including 46,647 people in the previous 24 hours.

In Mahoning County, 30 percent of the population (68,606 people) had received at least one dose with 28.42 percent in Trumbull County (56,274 people) and 24.8 percent in Columbiana County (25,264 people) as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, according to the ODH.

There were 1,907,577 people, 16.32 percent of the state’s population, who finished the vaccinations as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, including 29,374 in the prior 24 hours.

In Mahoning County, 18.11 percent of the population (41,418 people) had completed the process while 16.42 percent of the population in Trumbull (32,512 people) and 15.73 percent of the population in Columbiana (16,026) had as of 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Those at least 16 years of age were eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the state starting Monday.

But only the Pfizer vaccine has been authorized for 16 years and up, while you have to be at least 18 to be eligible for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

MERCY HEALTH

Mercy Health-Youngstown is offering COVID-19 vaccines at eight locations in the Mahoning Valley.

All patients must preregister by calling 866-624-0366 or existing Mercy Health patients can sign up through the MyChart portal.

The locations are Internal Medicine on Covington Street in Youngstown, Trailwood Primary Care on Trailwood Drive in Boardman, Boardman Neurology on Sahara Trail in Boardman, North Lima Medical Center on Market Street, Howland Medical Center on Niles Cortland Road, Youngstown Primary Care on Belmont Avenue in Youngstown, Eisenhower Primary Care on Eisenhower Drive in Boardman and Churchill Primary Care on Belmont Avenue in Liberty.

Mercy Health is averaging more than 1,000 vaccines per week. It is offering Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

dskolnick@tribtoday.com