Despite the slight increase in cases, the state’s three-week average dipped below 10,000 to 9,876 cases a week.
Hospitalizations were also up over the last week. Ohio added 422 hospitalizations after recording fewer than 400 the previous two weeks.
As of Thursday, there were 874 people hospitalized with COVID in the state, including 67 people in west central Ohio and 126 in southwest Ohio, according to the Ohio Hospital Association.
For southwest Ohio — which includes Butler, Warren, Hamilton, Adams, Brown, Clermont and Clinton counties — it was a 22% increase in patients with the virus over the last week, but a 37% decrease from 60 days ago.
West central Ohio — which is made up of Champaign, Clark, Darke, Greene, Miami, Montgomery, Preble and Shelby counties — reported a 49% increase in hospital patients with COVID compared to last week and a 32% decrease from 60 days ago, according to OHA.
Ohio’s ICUs had 122 COVID patients as of Thursday, with 15 in southwest Ohio and five in west central Ohio.
It was a 67% increase compared to the previous week for west central Ohio and a 38% drop from 60 days ago.
Southwest Ohio saw a 12% decrease in ICU patients with COVID over the last week and a 38% decrease compared to 60 days ago, according to OHA.
The state health department recorded 74 COVID deaths in the last week, bringing Ohio’s total to 40,111.
More than 7.49 million Ohioans — or 64.12% of the state’s population — have started the COVID vaccine and 6.94 million — or 59.43% of the population — have finished it.
About 3.83 million Ohioans have received their first booster dose and 1.21 million have received a second booster, according to ODH.
Since Sept. 1, 744,171 Ohioans have received the updated bivalent COVID booster, which health officials claim offers better protection against current COVID variants. More then 143,000 residents received the updated booster in the past week.
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