COVID-19 cases in Highland County have continued a recent rise, according to the New York Times COVID Tracker, which said the county was seeing 8.7 new cases per day, which is about 20 cases per 100,000 in population

The Tracker was last updated on Monday.

The last time The Times-Gazette reported on COVID-19 data, which was on June 13, 2022, The New York Times COVID Tracker said the county was seeing 5.7 new cases per day, or about 13 cases per 100,000 in population.

The tracker gave some of the latest trends for the county. It said that the community level of COVID-19 in the county is “medium” based on cases and hospitalizations, according to the most recent Center for Disease Control (CDC) update that was posted last Thursday. It said the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has risen in Highland County, but deaths have stayed about the same as in recent weeks.

The New York Times COVID-19 Tracker gave a COVID-19 update on June 9, 2022, for the U.S. as well, and said that the country is announcing about 100,000 cases each day, a number that has “stayed flat” in June.

It also said cases are going down in about half of the 50 U.S. states, primarily those in the Northeast and Midwest part of the country. However, in the South and West, the tracker said cases and hospitalizations are “increasing substantially.” It said daily new infections have almost doubled in June in Arkansas and Kentucky, and that in Wyoming cases are four times as high as they were two weeks ago.

“Fatality data has been volatile in recent weeks because of delays in reporting after Memorial Day,” the tracker said. “Still, reports of new deaths remain low. Fewer than 350 deaths are being reported each day, down from more than 2,600 a day at the height of the Omicron surge.”

In other news, Highland County’s COVID-19 case rate stood at 227.1 cases per 100,000 in population over the previous two weeks, according to the Ohio Department of Health Coronavirus Dashboard, which was last updated Thursday. The case rate was below the state average of 251.9 cases per 100,000 in population over the same period, and ranks the county 43rd among the state’s 88 counties in terms of the highest case rates.

In terms of vaccinations, Highland County is currently at 40.34 percent of the county’s residents that have started their vaccines, according to the ODH COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard which was last updated on Thursday. The state average for “vaccine started” is 62.86 percent.

In terms of completed vaccines, the state average is 58.37 percent, while the Highland County average is 37.30 percent.

The dashboard also said there have been 7,502 “First Booster” doses and 838 “Second Booster” doses administered in the county on or after Aug. 12, to people that were already fully vaccinated.

Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.