Pa. adds 7,132 virus cases, 33 deaths

COVID-19 cases continue to go up in Pennsylvania.

Saturday saw an increase of 7,132 cases, the largest one-day total since the end of January, according to data from the state Department of Health. The department also confirmed that another 33 people have died from the disease.

The spike continues a rising trend for infections during the past two weeks. From March 12 to 18, the state reported 14,632 new cases of COVID-19. During the past week, it reported 17,811 — an increase of nearly 3,200, and one of the largest weekly increases following a late-winter decline.

And the increase appears to be affecting hospitalizations as well: Last week’s daily average of 1,633 people hospitalized with COVID19 was up by 154 compared to the previous week. In total, the state has reported 1,012,299 cases of COVID-19 and 24,986 deaths.

Experts have said it is still too early to definitively say what is causing the uptick, but early speculation suggests people are relaxing their mitigation efforts as more contagious variants of the virus begin to take hold.

The ways to combat the variants, however, remain the same as the mitigation measures that have been taken throughout the pandemic: wear a mask, avoid gathering indoors and keep physical distance.

Pennsylvania on Saturday also reported 4.8 million doses of vaccine had been delivered, with more than 3.2 million people receiving at least one shot. (Philadelphia conducts its own vaccination program and is not included in those numbers.)

Allegheny County accounts for more than 400,000 of those who have been partially vaccinated.

The county Health Department on Saturday reported 447 new cases of COVID-19. Of the new cases, 270 were confirmed and 177 were probable positives. Newly

infected people ranged in age from one month to 94 years with a median age of 35.

The tests were conducted between March 21 and Friday.

The county reported no new deaths from the disease. In total, the Health Department has logged 84,258 cases of COVID-19 and 1,759 deaths since March 2020.