Through its first 15 days, September is on pace to have the third-most COVID-19 cases ever for a month in Ohio.

As of Wednesday, the state had 98,365 cases reported for the first half of September. That is an average of almost 6,558 per day. At that pace, Ohio would end September with nearly 196,730 COVID-19 cases.

It would be close to the second-highest month: November 2020 with 205,366 reported cases.

Only December with 279,317 reported cases had more for a month.

At its current pace, September will have a little more than the 195,412 cases reported in January.

For comparison, August had 91,623 reported COVID-19 cases, while July had 17,953 cases and June had 9,390. The latter was the state’s low point for cases in a full month.

The number of COVID-19 cases has increased significantly in the state since late July largely caused by the delta variant among the unvaccinated, which spreads quickly, said Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Ohio Department of Health director.

The 7,747 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday is up from the daily average of 6,037 for the past 21 days, according to the ODH.

The state has exceeded 5,500 daily cases in 13 of the past 16 days, according to ODH data.

Wednesday’s total includes 320 cases in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties combined.

About two months ago, all of Ohio was averaging about 260 cases per day.

The state had a total of 1,319,265 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday with 1,179,230 presumed recovered.

The ODH usually provides death information on Tuesdays and Fridays. There were 21,265 total COVID-19 deaths as of Tuesday.

VACCINATIONS

There were 6,200,966 people, 53.05 percent of the state’s population, who at least had started getting inoculated as of 6 a.m. Wednesday, including 10,298 in the previous 24 hours, according to the ODH.

In Mahoning County, 51.23 percent of the population (117,165 people) had received at least one dose, while 48.98 percent of the population in Trumbull County (96,969 people) and 41.62 percent in Columbiana County (42,402 people) had as of 6 a.m. Wednesday, according to the ODH.

There were 5,734,631 people, 49.06 percent of the state’s population, who finished the vaccinations as of 6 a.m. Wednesday, including 9,406 in the prior 24 hours.

In Mahoning County, 47.43 percent of the population (108,468 people) had completed the process, while 45.05 percent of the population in Trumbull (89,178 people) and 38.62 percent of the population in Columbiana (39,344 people) had as of 6 a.m. Wednesday.