Ohio reports 15,403 new COVID-19 cases; 676 Valley cases

The Ohio Department of Health on Tuesday reporterd 15,403 new COVID-19 cases statewide in the last 24 hours.

That includes 676 new cases in the Mahoning Valley: 311 new cases in Mahoning County (for a total of 40,011), 247 in Trumbull (31,111) and 118 in Columbiana (18,651).

Valley counties have reported a combined average 398 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 Christmas Eve surpassed 1.9 million total cases since the beginning of the pandemic and on Dec. 21 surpassed 28,000 total deaths.

The state on Tuesday reported 61 new COVID-19 deaths since its last mortality report four days prior,none of which were reported in the Valley. That makes 2,209 new deaths reported 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 444 new COVID-19 hospitalizations and 42 new ICU admissions reported statewide in the past 24 hours.

As of Dec. 22, fully vaccinated people accounted for 2,786 hospitalizations in the state since Jan. 1, and 664 fully vaccinated people have died. That means breakthrough infections are attributed to 4.5 percent of all COVID-19 deaths reported since the beginning of the year, and 5.6 percent of all hospitalizations.

More than 196,000 Ohioans are presumed to be actively infected as of Tuesday, up from the most recent low of 69,700 in early November.

The average seven-day rate of positive coronavirus tests in Ohio continued climbing Tuesday to 24.7% — the highest it’s been since the pandemic began. The state’s previous all-time high was 23.6% on April 20, 2020, amid COVID-19’s first wave.

Monday’s rate is 19 times higher than the all-time low of 1.3 percent reported in late June. Valley counties’ average positivity rates are now all below the state’s average.

The positivity rate for the two-week period ending Dec. 20 was 19.8% in Trumbull County (up from 19.2% the prior two weeks); 16.7% in Columbiana (up from 16.5%); and 14.8% in Mahoning (the same as last report).

The state’s two-week average of new cases per 100,000 people rose last week for the seventh week in a row, following five straight weeks of decline. The state on Thursday reported an average of 1,010 new cases per 100,000 Ohioans, up from 783 the week prior.

That’s more than 10 times the CDC’s threshold for “high” transmission, which is 100 cases per 100,000 people. The state’s two-week average of new cases per 100,000 people rose last week for the seventh week in a row, following six straight weeks of decline.

Mahoning County reported 865 new cases per 100,000 residents (up from 771 the prior week); Trumbull reported 794 (up from 766); Columbiana reported 727 new cases (down from 760).

In the past 24 hours, 8,068 new vaccinations were started in the state. As of Wednesday, 6,407,954 vaccine-eligible Ohioans have been fully vaccinated, or about 58.3% of Ohioans age 5 and older. As of Tuesday, 52.4% of all residents in Mahoning County have completed their vaccinations; 49.8% in Trumbull; and nearly 43% in Columbiana.

This story was originally published December 28, 2021 at 2:58 PM.