Ohio reports 10,025 new COVID-19 cases; 368 Valley cases

The Ohio Department of Health on Friday reported 10,025 new COVID-19 cases statewide in the past 24 hours.

That includes 368 new cases in the Mahoning Valley: 136 new cases in Mahoning County (for a total of 37,848), 153 in Trumbull (29,247) and 79 in Columbiana (17,925).

Valley counties have reported a combined average 376 new cases each day this month. There were an average 320 new cases reported each day in November; 259 cases each day in October; 295 cases each day in September; and 113 cases each day in August.

The state on Wednesday surpassed 1.8 million total cases and last week surpassed 27,000 total deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

The state on Friday reported 426 new COVID-19 deaths since its last mortality report four days prior, including 17 deaths in Mahoning County, 24 deaths in Trumbull and two in Columbiana. That’s the most new deaths reported in a single day for several months. That makes 1,460 deaths reported statewide so far this month.

There were about 2,000 deaths reported in November; more than 2,500 deaths in October; nearly 1,110 deaths in September; and about 380 deaths in August. ODH attributes deaths to the date they occurred, so new death reports are not indicative of their time frame.

There were 395 new COVID-19 hospitalizations reported statewide Thursday and 43 new ICU admissions.

As of Dec. 15, 2,652 people reported to be fully vaccinated have been hospitalized in the state for breakthrough infections since Jan. 1, and 610 fully vaccinated people have died. That means breakthrough infections are attributed to 4.6 percent of all COVID-19 deaths reported since the beginning of the year, and 5.6 percent of all hospitalizations.

More than 149,000 Ohioans are presumed to be actively infected as of Friday, up from the most recent low of 69,700 in early November.

The average seven-day rate of positive coronavirus tests in Ohio, on the rise since late October, stopped its steady climb earlier this month. But it jumped to 16.5% on Friday — the record level for 2021. The state’s all-time high was 23.6% on April 20, 2020, during the state’s initial wave of COVID-19 cases.

It’s 12 times higher than the all-time low of 1.3 percent reported in late June. And that rate is still worse than average in Valley counties.

The positivity rate for the two-week period ending Dec. 7 was 21.5% in Trumbull County (up from 21.3% the prior two weeks); 16.6% in Columbiana (down from 17.7%); and 15.7% in Mahoning (the same as the last report).

The state’s two-week average of new cases per 100,000 people rose this week for the sixth week in a row, following five straight weeks of decline.

The state on Thursday reported an average of 783 new cases per 100,000 Ohioans, up from 719 the week prior. That’s nearly eight times the CDC’s threshold for “high” transmission, which is 100 cases per 100,000 people. The rate of new cases was 601 for the two weeks ending Dec. 1

Mahoning County reported 771 new cases per 100,000 residents (down from 775 the prior week); Trumbull reported 766 (down from 896); Columbiana reported 760 new cases per 100,000 residents (down from 840).

Between Thursday and Friday, 9,246 new vaccinations were started in the state.

As of Friday, 6,359,973 vaccine-eligible Ohioans have been fully vaccinated, or about 57.8% of Ohioans age 5 and older. As of Friday, 52% of all residents in Mahoning County have completed their vaccinations; 49.5% in Trumbull; and 42.7% in Columbiana.