OHIO — As cases and hospitalizations steadily decline throughout the state, more counties have dropped to from red to orange, and even yellow, on the state's Public Advisory Map. 

The state implemented the four-level system in July to track COVID-19 spread in each county. Purple Alert Level 4 indicates the highest amount of spread, whereas Yellow Alert Level 1 shows the least. 

In October, 92.8% of Ohioans were living in a county labeled as Red Alert Level 3, meaning there were more than 100 cases per 100,000 over a two-week period. A few counties ended up jumping to Purple Alert Level 4 in November, including Franklin County. 

Since then, the state's map has been largely red with a few counties in Orange Alert Level 2 sprinkled in between. 

But on Thursday, the state's new map showed five counties are back to yellow — four more than last week — and 23 counties have dropped from red to orange.

Last week, Meigs County was the first to drop to yellow since October. Meigs also had the lowest case rate this week with 21.8 cases per 100,000 residents. Vinton, Auglaize, Shelby and Mercer are also yellow. 

The orange counties include Knox, Ashtabula, Williams, Putnam, Allen, Van Wert, Darke, Preble, Fayette, Hocking, Adams, Jackson, Galia, Morgan, Noble, Monroe, Guernsey, Tuscarawas, Harrison, Carroll, Holmes, Morrow and Wayne. 

The statewide average of cases per capita is 143.8 per 100,000 residents. That's down from 155 last week. Ohio is inching closer to reaching 50 cases per 100,000 residents — a goal set by Gov. Mike DeWine that would end health restrictions like the mask mandate, if the state stays below 50 cases for two weeks straight.

ICU admissions are also down. According to the Ohio Department of Health, 7.1% of COVID-19 patients were admitted to the ICU, which is down from 8% last week. 

The state documented 2,105 cases, 156 hospitalizations and 17 ICU admissions Thursday.