For the second day in a row, Ohio reported more than 300 new COVID-19 cases — the first time that’s happened in about two weeks.

The Ohio Department of Health reported 377 new cases Thursday in the state. A day earlier, 317 new cases were reported.

It comes as the Delta variant is becoming more widespread. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the Delta strain made up more than half of the new COVID-19 cases between June 20 and last Saturday.

The past two days with more than 300 daily cases reported in Ohio is the first time that’s happened since June 22-24, when there were three days with at least 300 daily cases.

The 377 cases is the most reported since 579 on July 1.

It is also more than the daily average of 249 for the past 21 days, according to the ODH.

The state had a total of 1,113,383 COVID-19 cases as of Thursday with 1,086,209 presumed recovered.

The ODH usually provides death information on Tuesdays and Fridays. Because of the July 4 holiday, COVID-19 death numbers were delayed a day, until Wednesday. There were 20,366 total COVID-19 deaths as of Wednesday.

Mahoning County had 22,453 total COVID-19 cases as of Thursday with 21,708 presumed recovered and 611 deaths, according to the ODH.

Trumbull County had 16,616 total COVID-19 cases as of Thursday with 16,004 presumed recovered and 486 deaths.

Columbiana County had 9,058 total COVID-19 cases as of Thursday with 8,801 presumed recovered and 235 deaths.

VACCINATIONS

There were 5,610,606 people, 48 percent of the state’s population, who had at least started getting inoculated as of 6 a.m. Thursday, including 6,819 in the previous 24 hours, according to the ODH.

In Mahoning County, 46.64 percent of the population (106,668 people) had received at least one dose with 44.33 percent of the population in Trumbull County (87,763 people) and 37.55 percent in Columbiana County (38,255 people) as of 6 a.m. Thursday, according to the ODH.

There were 5,245,902 people, 44.88 percent of the state’s population,who finished the vaccinations as of 6 a.m. Thursday, including 9,334 in the prior 24 hours.

In Mahoning County, 43.19 percent of the population (98,773 people) had completed the process while 40.72 percent of the population in Trumbull (80,614 people) and 35.4 percent of the population in Columbiana (36,067 people) had as of 6 a.m. Thursday.

dskolnick@tribtoday.com

dskolnick@vindy.com