Pa. sees 2nd-largest increase in cases during pandemic

With a new surge of the coronavirus well underway, Saturday’s case count brought the second largest total in Pennsylvania since the start of the pandemic, with 1,857 new cases reported by the state Health Department.

There were 132 fewer cases than the 1,989 reported April 9, the highest daily total.

Nearly 200 cases were reported in Philadelphia and more than 130 cases in Allegheny County, which is home to Pittsburgh, as well as more than 100 in Berks County.

To date, there have been 180,943 infections statewide.

Here are more details from the daily update.

The state reported nine new deaths, compared with 25 Friday and 21 Thursday. That brings the total to 8,466.

As of Saturday afternoon, 847 people were hospitalized for COVID-19, compared with 830 the day before. Of those, 92 patients were on ventilators, a dozen more than Friday.

There were 234,583 tests administered Oct. 10-16, with 9,778 of those being positive.

There were 18,487 new tests Saturday, about 3,000 more than were administered the day before, for a positive test rate of 9.1%, up slightly from Friday. The overall positive test rate is now at 7.6%.

The Lehigh Valley had 81 new cases reported (31 in Lehigh

County and 50 in Northampton County), compared with 68 the day before. That brings the total to 11,131 (6,109 in Lehigh and 5,022 in Northampton).

There were no new deaths reported locally, leaving the total of number of people in the Lehigh Valley who have died from the virus at 670 (361 in Lehigh and 309 in Northampton).

— Eugene Tauber and Christine Schiavo