COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The Ohio Department of Health on Thursday reported 12,101 new COVID-19 cases for the past week, putting it on course for levels unseen in around five months.

The state has seen consistently smaller case rates, breaking a 10-week pattern in the previous week. Prior to July, the state’s COVID-19 spread had not broken 20,000 new cases in nearly five months. Now, Ohio's latest coronavirus numbers are on a trajectory to return to another months-old milestone: going under 10,000 cases per week.

The state has not reported weekly new cases under 10,000 since the week of April 22, when it had 8,731 infections. It immediately went up to 11,013 during the week of April 29. Later in July, cases climbed over 20,000 and stayed above that threshold for 10 weeks in a row.

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. Over the past week, the state averaged around 1,729 new coronavirus cases per day. Ohio saw fewer people hospitalized with the virus as case numbers also dropped. The 432 hospitalizations reported by ODH in the past seven days (about 62 per day) are a noticeable drop from 523 last week and 626 the week prior.

ODH said 89 died from the virus, down slightly from 92 deaths the week prior.

A total of 7,686 Ohioans started the COVID-19 vaccination process in the past seven days. Another 7,381 finished vaccination by getting their second dose. Around six in 10 Ohioans are partially or fully vaccinated.