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From staff reports
Washington County has remained near the bottom of Ohio's 88 counties in the two-week average of new COVID-19 cases for several weeks, but the county's numbers moved upward in the most recent period.
The county of 59,911 residents recorded 328 new cases from Dec. 16-29, according to Ohio Department of Health statistics released Thursday. That's up from 213 from Dec. 9-22 and pushes the rate per 100,000 people from 355.5, 87th in the state, to 547.5, 80th.
Athens County also broke 300 new cases from Dec. 16-29 after tallying 246 in the preceding two-week span. That moved the county's rate per 100,000 from 376.6 (86th) to 468.4 (85th). Athens County has a population of 65,327.
Noble County also saw an increase, with 104 new cases in the latest span, up from 65. For the county with 14,424 residents, that translated to a rate of 721 per 100,000, ranking 63rd in the state, up from 450.6 and 82nd last week.
Monroe and Morgan counties saw slight decreases.
Despite having 107 new cases from Dec. 9-22, Monroe County had the 29th highest rate per 100,000 people (783.7) because of its population of 13,654. A decrease of just three new cases for the latest period lowered the rate to 761.7. As other counties saw their rates climb, Monroe slid to 56th in the state.
Morgan County, with 14,508 residents, dropped from 96 new cases (661.7, 64th in the state) to 88 (606.6, 74th).
Cuyahoga County, the second most populous in Ohio, had the highest rate and overall number of cases by far with 37,336, or 3,023 per 100,000 people.
Statewide, the average per 100,000 residents was 1,364.7.