The number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 Ohio residents remains high, but the increase between last week and this week was the smallest since July.

The state was at 698.7 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents for the period between Sept. 9 and Wednesday, according to statistics from the Ohio Department of Health.

The rate was at 683.3 cases per 100,000 residents last week, meaning it increased by only 2.25 percent.

The number, however, is more than 25 times higher than it was 10 weeks ago.

The state was at 27 cases per 100,000 people July 15.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers 100 cases per 100,000 to be high-transmission areas for COVID-19 and recommends face masks while indoors at public places.

Ohio has 30 counties that have more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 residents. The lowest rate among the state’s 88 counties is in Holmes County with 368.5 cases per 100,000 people.

Only one county in the state was above 100 cases per 100,000 people on July 15.

The state was at 582.4 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents two weeks ago and at 472.4 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 three weeks ago.

The rate was at 338.1 four weeks ago and at 259.2 cases per 100,000 five weeks ago.

The delta variant among the unvaccinated, which spreads quickly, is almost entirely to blame for the increase Ohio has seen in cases since mid-July, said Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, ODH’s director.

While 26,063 unvaccinated Ohioans have been hospitalized with COVID-19 since Jan. 1, just 851 who are vaccinated have been hospitalized, according to ODH data. Also, 7,862 unvaccinated people in the state have died from COVID-19 since the beginning of the year, compared to 113 vaccinated people, according to ODH.

LOCALLY

Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana rose this week in the ranking of the state’s 88 counties for COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.

Over the past 10 weeks, all three counties experienced an increase.

Mahoning is 59th in the state with 714.5 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.

It was 68th last week with 630.6 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.

It was 71st two weeks ago with 467 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, 66th three weeks ago with 377.8, 56th four weeks ago with 306.5 and 62nd five weeks ago with a rate of 220.4.

Trumbull is 76th this week with 561.2 cases per 100,000.

While still among the lowest in the state, it has gone up in the rankings each of the past four weeks.

It was 80th last week with 484.9 cases per 100,000.

It was 85th two weeks ago with 322.8 cases per 100,000 residents, 86th three weeks ago with 266.2, 87th four weeks with 203.6 and 75th five weeks ago with 198 cases per 100,000 people.

Columbiana moved up this week to 34th with 922.6 cases per 100,000 residents.

Columbiana was 52nd last week with 776.4 cases per 100,000 residents.

It was 58th two weeks ago with a rate of 552.6, 61st three weeks ago with 413.2, 34th four weeks ago with 398.5 and 25th five weeks ago with 333.7 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.

COVID-19 DATA

The 7,095 new COVID-19 cases reported Friday is up from the daily average of 6,624 new cases over the past 21 days, according to the ODH.

Friday’s total includes a combined 428 new cases in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.

A little more than two months ago, the entire state was averaging about 260 cases a day.

The state had a total of 1,380,370 COVID-19 cases as of Friday, with 1,229,694 presumed recovered and 21,820 deaths.

The ODH usually provides death information on Tuesdays and Fridays.

There were 224 additional COVID-19 deaths since Tuesday, including seven in Trumbull, four in Mahoning and one in Columbiana counties. The 224 deaths over a three-day period is a high number. The state had been averaging 126 COVID-19 deaths over three-day periods.