COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the third time in a week, the state of Ohio set a new record for most cases reported in a single day since the start of the pandemic.
The Ohio Department of Health reported 2,178 new COVID-19 cases in the state today, bringing the total number of cases to 175,843.
During Gov. Mike DeWine's Thursday press conference, he compared the number of cases the state had less than a month ago and said we are heading in the wrong direction.
"September 20, barely a month ago, we had 762 cases, and for some time we were reporting around a thousand cases. So we've gone up dramatically in a relatively short period of time," DeWine said.
DeWine said the increase in cases is coming from families and friends hosting events such as bonfires, birthday parties, weddings and funerals.
"Now is really the time to rethink whether these are in the best interest of the community. Our health commissioners tell us they're seeing less and less mask compliance. When people are out, and the people are not wearing masks when they're with friends and family," DeWine said.
Cuyahoga County was one of five counties in the state to report more than 100 cases. Cuyahoga County reported 123 cases today. The other counties that reported more than 100 cases were Butler, Franklin, Hamilton and Montgomery. Cleveland reported 22 new cases, bringing their total to 5,794.
There have now been 5,038 coronavirus-related deaths across the state, with five new deaths reported Thursday, which is lower than the 21-day average of 15.
The ODH reported 108 new hospitalizations today, with 43 ICU admissions, both of which were above the 21-day average.
DeWine said the number of patients in the hospital fighting COVID-19 has just about doubled within a short period of time. He said hospitalizations aren't getting near capacity, but the numbers are concerning.
As of today, 147,063 Ohioans are presumed recovered from the disease, according to the ODH.
There were 33,406 tests done on Oct. 13, the latest day this data from the ODH was available. Of those tests, 5.4% were positive, compared to the rolling 7-day average positivity rate, which is 4.2%. Click here for details on where to get a COVID-19 test in your area.
In the past month, the positivity rate in the state has more than doubled, according to DeWine.
"What we should be seeing is a decrease in positivity — is that density goes dramatically off. Instead of that, we're seeing, not a decrease in positivity, we're seeing a very, very significant increase," DeWine said.
The median age of patients is 40 with the age range for infected patients from younger than 1 year old to 109 years old.
View more data from the ODH on their COVID-19 dashboard here.
Note: Some of the charts above are updated with new data daily, and after 24 hours, may not reflect the statistics at the time this story was published.
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