COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The Ohio Department of Health on Thursday reported 24,067 COVID-19 cases for the past week, ending a streak of week-over-week rising infections.

While less than the previous week, Ohio has seen more than 20,000 new COVID-19 cases per week six times in a row. The state broke 3 million all-time cases last week. The level of spread accompanying COVID-19 cases resulted in Ohio University announcing it would require masks at the beginning of August.

Prior to July, the state's COVID-19 spread had not broken 20,000 new cases 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 3,438 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. While Ohio saw a drop in cases week-over-week, more people were hospitalized with the virus. The 665 hospitalizations reported by ODH in the past seven days (95 per day) are more than 605 last week, but not as much as 679 two weeks ago.

As more people got sick, more of them also died from COVID-19 over the past week. ODH said 90 had died from the virus by Thursday, which was up slightly from 87 deaths in the week prior.

As cases were going down over the past week, the state also saw a drop in vaccinations. Compared to 21,610 in the week before, only 8,966 Ohioans started the COVID-19 vaccination process in the past seven days, per ODH data. Another 7,096 finished vaccination by getting their second dose. Around six in 10 Ohioans are partially or fully vaccinated.