Gov. Mike DeWine during the state coronavirus update on Thursday, April 1, 2021. DAYTON — State officials on Thursday reminded Ohioans they’re still at war against the novel coronavirus — and the state’s lost some footing in recent weeks. The state's seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases each day was about 1,800 this week, compared to 1,500 last week. "Cases, as I noted, are also up in Ohio for the first week in a long time," Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Ohio Department of Health's chief medical officer, said during a Thursday briefing on the state's coronavirus response. Three highly infectious variants of the novel coronavirus are responsible for most of the hundreds of genetic changes to the virus medical experts have recorded lately, state officials said.