• Cases, positivity rate continue to decline in Pa.

New COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania declined further Monday, sustaining an encouraging trend from last week that also saw the positivity rate go down.

The state recorded 25,985 more cases last week — a substantial number, but far below the 31,140 increase from the week before. Positivity rates — the percentage of COVID-19 tests that come back positive — stood at 9.3% last week, down from 10.5% the week before.

Gov. Tom Wolf said Monday that the pattern was a good sign, but he warned that the virus still remained a threat.

“We need to stay the course and unite in the COVID-19 fight,” he said.

On Monday, Pennsylvania added a two-day total of 6,839 COVID-19 cases to its count and confirmed the deaths of 85 more people from the disease.

In all, the commonwealth has reported 21,687 COVID-19 deaths and 846,078 cases since March. Over the weekend, Pennsylvania also surpassed 1 million vaccinations against the virus.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state by Monday had vaccinated 900,237 people against COVID-19, or approximately 7% of the population. Some of those people have had both required shots, bringing the total administered in the state to 1,134,185 doses.

More than 58,000 of those vaccinations have been distributed in Allegheny County, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported.

The county Health Department on Monday reported a two-day total of 402 new cases of COVID-19 and confirmed one more death from the disease.

The person who died was over 100 years old, the department reported, and was in a

long-term care facility.

According to the county, the breakdown of the new cases was 366 confirmed and 36 probable. The ages of newly infected people range from 2 months to 99 years, with a median age of 42.

Most of the tests were conducted during the past week, but one dates back as far as Dec. 14. Three other tests were from earlier in January.

In total, the county Health Department has reported 69,537 cases of COVID-19 since March 14. The disease has caused 4,300 people to be hospitalized and led to 1,454 local deaths.

More information about COVID-19 and vaccines can be found on the county’s dashboard and the Pennsylvania Department of Health website.