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COVID-19 cases climb by 67% in four weeks

The number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 Ohio residents increased for the fourth straight week and is at its highest level since late September.

The 601.1 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents for the period between Nov. 18 and Wednesday is up from 538.2 cases per 100,000 last week, according to Ohio Department of Health data provided Thursday.

It’s an increase of 11.7 percent since last week and 67.4 percent since cases started heading in the wrong direction four weeks ago. It’s the highest COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the state since Sept. 30 at 616.7.

The state was at 496.3 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 two weeks ago.

It was 410.5 cases per 100,000 three weeks ago, 359.1 cases per 100,000 four weeks ago and 419.2 cases per 100,000 five weeks ago.

In just the past two days, the state has reported 18,075 total cases: 9,131 on Thursday and 8,944 on Wednesday. That is the most COVID-19 cases reported for two days in nearly 11 months. There were 19,786 cases reported on Jan. 7 (10,251) and Jan. 8 (9,535).

Also, the 9,131 cases reported Thursday was the most for a single day since Jan. 8.

“Sadly, we continue to see an uptick in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations,” Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, ODH director, said Thursday.

There were 3,916 COVID-19 hospitalizations Thursday in Ohio. It’s the most since about 4,000 on Jan. 12.

The “highest concentration” of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state is in the northeast region, Vanderhoff said.

Before the four weeks of increases, the state had six straight weeks of declines in COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.

The state’s cases are more than six times what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider to be high-transmission areas for COVID-19.

The CDC number for high transmission is 100 cases per 100,000. It recommends face masks while indoors at public places in those areas, but it’s not a mandate.

The highest COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents among Ohio’s 88 counties was Williams with 1,133.8 and the lowest was Athens with 298.5 cases per 100,000 residents.

VALLEY RATES

Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana had higher rates of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents than the state and are all in the top 20 among Ohio’s 88 counties.

Mahoning is 20th in the state this week with 778.8 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.

Last week it was 17th with 726.8 cases per 100,000 residents.

It was 25th two weeks ago with 686.1 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, 28th three weeks ago with 533.1 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, 38th four weeks ago with 431.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and 43rd five weeks ago with 439.9 COVID-19 cases per 100,000.

Trumbull is 14th this week with 816.8 cases per 100,000 residents.

It was 18th last week with 718.8 cases per 100,000 residents.

It was 39th two weeks ago with 577.9 cases per 100,000 residents, 32nd three weeks ago with 507.4 cases per 100,000 residents, 30th four weeks ago with 463.2 cases per 100,000 and 54th five weeks ago with 382.4 cases per 100,000.

Columbiana is 13th this week with 821.5 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.

It was ninth last week with 758.2 cases per 100,000 residents.

It was 14th two weeks ago with 753.8 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, 17th three weeks ago with 677.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000, ninth four weeks ago with 620.3 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and 12th five weeks ago with 586 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.

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