COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio has surpassed 3 million all-time COVID-19 cases, a weekly new case report from the Ohio Department of Health showed Thursday.

The state was on the verge of hitting the milestone — which indicates more than a fourth of all Ohioans have now contracted the virus at some point — in its previous report, when ODH recorded 2,976,027 all-time cases. The state has been moving up in total cases at a pace of over 20,000 a week for five weeks in a row.

ODH Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff did not mention the third million-milestone in a same-day press conference about COVID-19 and monkeypox. He did, however, acknowledge the summer's higher spread. He also touted the success of vaccines that have reduced the strain on Ohio's hospital systems, saying they've done well enough in protecting Ohioans that the state almost has "complacency" about the virus.

Indeed, zooming in on weekly cases also shows a continuing downtrend in COVID-19 cases, despite the high level reported week-by-week. ODH reported 26,016 new cases for the past week. The case rate peaked just under 30,000 at its height on July 28. Fewer and fewer new cases have cropped up in the two weeks since.

Prior to July, the state's COVID-19 spread had not hit 20,000 new cases per week in nearly five months. It previously saw an eight-week streak of consistent rises in new cases end in late May. Over the past week, the state averaged around 3,717 new coronavirus cases per day.

ODH began reporting COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations weekly instead of daily in mid-March after new infections slowed to a low level after the omicron wave. The drop in cases was accompanied by fewer people being hospitalized with the virus. The 608 hospitalizations reported by ODH in the past seven days (97 per day) are fewer than 679 last week and 705 two weeks ago.

A similar downward trend followed for deaths, with 87 dying from COVID-19 over the past week. ODH said 98 had died from the virus by the previous Thursday, almost doubling the 54 deaths in the week prior.

As cases were going down over the past week, the state also saw a drop in vaccinations. Compared to 8,966 in the week before, 8,648 Ohioans started the COVID-19 vaccination process in the past seven days, per ODH data. Another 6,360 finished vaccination by getting their second dose. Around six in 10 Ohioans are partially or fully vaccinated.