A surge in COVID-19 cases during the second half of November resulted in Ohio seeing an increase in cases reported that month compared to October.

Overall, the 144,890 cases in November is the fifth-highest amount for a month since the March 2020 start of the pandemic.

During the first 15 days of November 63,088 cases were reported with 81,802 cases reported in the second half of the month.

During the first half of the month, November was on pace in Ohio to have fewer COVID-19 cases than October. October now drops to the month with the sixth-most cases.

It averaged about 4,206 per day during the first 15 days of November. But that average jumped to more than 5,453 per day during the second half of the month.

In October, 131,335 cases were reported in Ohio.

In November, six days had with more than 6,000 cases reported. They all occurred in the second half of the month. Eleven days had more than 5,000 cases with nine of them in the second half of the month.

The most cases for a day in November was Tuesday, the last day of the month, with 6,745. It is the most cases reported for a day in Ohio since Sept. 28 with 7,283 cases.

In just the last half of November, more COVID-19 cases were reported than the 56,965 cases reported for May (29,622), June (9,390) and July (17,953) combined.

The delta variant, primarily among the unvaccinated, caused a large increase in COVID-19 cases in the state, and the nation, starting in late July, said Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, director of the Ohio Department of Health.

In August, 91,623 cases were reported with 193,072 in September. September had the fourth-most case for a month in Ohio.

The most was 279,317 last December, followed by 205,366 in November and 195,412 in January.

The state had 1,690,217 total COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic with 1,559,671 presumed recovered and 26,587 deaths as of Tuesday, according to the ODH.