Most-ever doses of vaccine coming next week

Northampton Co. leads surge in cases

Pennsylvania is set to receive a record 421,220 first doses of the three COVID-19 vaccines next week, according to data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. The total, which includes a separate allotment for Philadelphia, is a 31% increase over this week’s 320,640 first doses.

An equal number of second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are sent three and four weeks later, respectively. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only a single shot.

The biggest increase comes in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is going from 14,800 doses this week to 75,600 next week. The company announced Tuesday that Catalent Inc., a manufacturer in Bloomington, Indiana, received Food and Drug Administration approval to start manufacturing the J&J formulation.

The amount of Moderna vaccine holds steady at 128,000 doses next week, while Pfizer will ship 217,620 doses next week compared with 177,840 this week.

The Health Department used previous deliveries of the J&J vaccine to immunize education and child care employees. The vast majority of the people from that group who wanted it have now been vaccinated. The department said it would use future allotments of the one-shot vaccine for mass vaccination sites and initiatives to reduce inequalities in who is able to get a shot.

The increased allocations can’t come soon enough, as the state is reporting the highest number of additional cases in six weeks.

The state Health Department reported 4,667 additional coronavirus cases Wednesday. The seven-day moving average of newly reported cases was 3,271, up 27% from 2,570 a week ago. That average is up more than 26% over the last 30 days and has been climbing steadily for the last two weeks.

Northampton County’s 191 additional cases put it at the top of the population-adjusted list of daily cases averaged over the last seven days. It had been in the top five for the last two weeks.

The last time Northampton led the state in the population-adjusted case rate, Lehigh University contributed 310 cases, or about 30% of the county’s weekly caseload. The university’s dashboard shows 17 active cases this week.

Most of the top counties are in the northeast part of the state.

The top 10 counties for daily cases per 100,000 residents are Northampton (46), Pike (45.8), Centre (44.1), Wyoming (41.1), Elk (39.6), Berks (38.8), Carbon (37.6), Clearfield (36.1), Monroe (35.9) and Lehigh (33.7).

To date, there have been 996,617 infections statewide since the start of the pandemic.

Deaths

Overall: 48 compared with 39 on Tuesday. The seven-day moving average of deaths per day is 27, compared with 36 a week ago.

Senior care: 46 compared with 13 on Tuesday. That brings the total to 12,889, accounting for 51.8% of the state’s 24,876 deaths.

Hospitalizations

There were 1,652 people hospitalized as of midday Wednesday, compared with 1,631 Tuesday. Of those, 184 were on ventilators, and 351 were in intensive care beds. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has been increasing for five days.

Hospitals in the Lehigh Valley report 145 COVID-19 patients

Wednesday compared with 137 Tuesday, with 23 of them in intensive care and 16 on ventilators.

Testing

There were 13,822 test results reported Wednesday, with 23.8% of them positive, compared with 25.6% on Tuesday.

The overall positive test rate is 17.3% since the state’s first cases were reported March 6.

Lehigh Valley

Cases: 359 additional case reports, with 168 in Lehigh County, 191 in Northampton County. That brings the total to 62,337.

Deaths: Four new deaths — two each in Lehigh and Northampton counties — compared with three the day before. That brings the total to 1,475, (802 in Lehigh, and 673 in Northampton).

Vaccinations

The state is averaging more than 97,000 vaccinations per day, including Philadelphia. The latest combined data shows more than 5.1 million shots have been put into 3.38 million arms across the state, accounting for 32.2% of the eligible population. Close to 1.8 million Pennsylvanians — 16.9% of the age 16-and-over population — are fully immunized against COVID, an additional 1.6 million people — or 15.3% of those eligible — have gotten the first of their two required shots.

More than one-third of the eligible Lehigh Valley population has been at least partially inoculated, with 186,392 people having received 288,657 doses of a vaccine. Over 102,000 are fully immunized, and another 84,000 are awaiting their second dose.