Cases, hospitalizations rising more slowly in state

The state Health Department reported 3,088 additional coronavirus cases Monday, plus 3,362 Sunday. The seven-day moving average of newly reported cases was 4,289, virtually unchanged from a week ago. While the moving average is still up more than 73% from a month ago, the pace of increase has been slowing.

The slowing rate is good news, but data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention show that Pennsylvania still ranks sixth for the population-adjusted rate of additional infections over seven days. With a rate of 236 cases per 100,000 residents, Pennsylvania follows Michigan, New Jersey, New York City, Minnesota and the remainder of New York state. Michigan’s rate of 516 cases per 100,000 people is more than twice Pennsylvania’s rate.

The 10 counties in the northeast health care region, which includes Lehigh and Northampton counties, are adding cases faster than the other five regions. Wyoming County has had the highest rate of the state’s 67 counties for two weeks, adding 422 cases per 100,000 residents over the last week. The good news is that Wyoming’s rate is down more than 20% since last week.

The counties with the top rates are Wyoming (60.2 per 100,000), Bradford (54.9), Monroe (52.6), Northampton (45.5) and Pike (44).

To date, there have been 1.075 million infections statewide since the start of the pandemic.

The Health Department announced Monday that it is setting up a walk-in testing site in Monroe County at the Middle Smithfield Township Community & Cultural Center at 5200

Milford Road. It will be in operation from Wednesday through Sunday, and will be able to handle up to 450 people per day using PCR testing.

Combined numbers from the state and Philadelphia health departments show that more than 7 million vaccinations have been administered to 4.24 million residents in all 67 counties, accounting for 40.4% of the 16-and-over population that is eligible to be vaccinated. More than 2.76 million people — 26.4% of those eligible —are fully vaccinated, with another 1.47 million — 14% of the eligible population — waiting for the second of their two required shots.

Lehigh Valley has topped 258,000 people who have gotten at least one shot in the arm — 47.1% of those eligible. There are about 142,000 Valley residents who are fully inoculated against COVID-19, with another 116,000 awaiting their follow-up shot, accounting for 26% and 21% of those eligible.

One death was reported, compared with three Sunday. The seven-day moving average of deaths per day is 29, compared with 26 a week ago.

There were 2,474 people hospitalized as of midday Monday, compared with 2,460 Sunday. Of those, 250 were on ventilators, and 534 were in intensive care beds.

The seven-day moving average of COVID hospitalizations is up 11% statewide since last week, but the rate of growth is lower: last Monday it was close to 20% higher than the week before.

Another sign that treatments are improving or that people are not as severely ill is that fewer than 1 in 10 patients are on a ventilator, about a 30% decrease over a month ago.

Hospitals in the Lehigh Valley had 185 COVID hospitalizations Monday, compared with 181 Sunday. There are 38 people in local intensive care units, with 26 of them on ventilators.

In the Lehigh Valley, there were 161 additional case reports, 82 in Lehigh County and 79 in Northampton County. That brings the total to 67,978.

No new deaths were reported Sunday or Monday. There have been 1,497 COVID-related deaths in the Valley (812 in Lehigh, and 685 in Northampton).