Ohio hit an unfortunate milestone Tuesday as it exceeded 1.5 million total COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.

The state had 1,503,102 total COVID-19 cases Tuesday, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

Ohio exceeded 1 million total COVID-19 cases on March 22 so it took nearly seven months to go from 1 million to 1.5 million.

The state went past 500,000 total COVID-19 cases on Dec. 8, 2020, taking three and a half months to get from that number to 1 million. That’s half the time it took to go from 1 million to 1.5 million.

The pandemic started in early March 2020, and it took about nine months for the state to report its 500,000th case.

Also, through the first 19 days of this month, the state is on pace to see a decline in COVID-19 cases in October compared to last month. But by today, it will almost certainly be the month with the fifth most cases since the start of the pandemic.

October had 89,130 total COVID-19 cases through Tuesday, an average of a little more than 4,691 daily cases for the first 19 days of the month.

If the state maintains that pace through the rest of the month, October will have about 145,422 total COVID-19 cases.

There were 193,072 reported cases in September, which was the fourth most for a month since the start of the pandemic. The high number was largely caused by the delta variant, which spreads quickly among the unvaccinated, Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, ODH director, has said.

August is currently the fifth highest month for total COVID-19 cases with 91,673, but only 2,544 more cases today and October will exceed August — and there are 11 more days left in this month.

In July, there were 17,953 with the delta variant spreading toward the latter part of that month. In June, there were 9,390 reported cases.

The month with the most cases in the state was last December with 279,317 followed by last November with 205,366 and January with 195,412.

Also, the 1,796 total COVID-19 deaths reported during the first 19 days of this month is already more than any month since February. There were 954 reported COVID-19 deaths in September, 374 in August and 183 in July.

COVID-19 DATA

The 3,617 COVID-19 cases Tuesday is down from the daily average of 4,863 for the past 21 days, according to the ODH.

Tuesday’s total includes 206 cases in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties combined.

The state had a total of 1,499,485 COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday with 1,380,005 presumed recovered and 23,616 deaths.

The ODH usually provides death information on Tuesdays and Fridays.

There were 289 additional COVID-19 deaths reported since Friday including six in Columbiana, four in Trumbull and three in Mahoning counties. The 289 deaths in those four days is more than the 183 in all of July.

Mahoning County had 30,400 total COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday with 27,436 presumed recovered and 675 deaths.

Trumbull County had 22,617 total COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday with 20,375 presumed recovered and 556 deaths.

Columbiana County had 13,810 total COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday with 12,184 presumed recovered and 269 deaths.

VACCINATIONS

There were 6,414,928 people, 54.88 percent of the state’s population, who had at least started getting inoculated as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, including 6,578 in the previous 24 hours, according to the ODH.

In Mahoning County, 52.78 percent of the population (120,698 people) had received at least one dose with 50.63 percent of the population in Trumbull County (100,228 people) and 43.17 percent in Columbiana County (43,984 people) as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, according to the ODH.

There were 5,987,987 people, 51.23 percent of the state’s population, who finished the vaccinations as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, including 6,557 in the prior 24 hours.

In Mahoning County, 49.46 percent of the population (113,114 people) had completed the process while 46.99 percent of the population in Trumbull (93,035 people) and 40.54 percent of the population in Columbiana (41,314 people) had as of 6 a.m. Tuesday.