Lehigh County case rate falls 86% since Jan.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 1,643 additional coronavirus cases on Friday, and the sevenday moving average of newly reported cases was 1,892, down 29% from 2,668 a week ago, and down more than 60% over the last 30 days.

Numbers have been tumbling statewide over the past three weeks, and are down 78% since recording a peak of 82.6 cases per day per 100,000 residents on Dec. 16. But the Lehigh Valley’s rates have been falling faster than the state’s.

On Friday, Northampton County ranked 44th of the 67 counties for most cases per 100,000 residents, with a rate of 14.7 population-adjusted cases per day. Lehigh is 50th, seeing its rate plunge more than 86% since Jan. 11 to 13.1 cases per 100,000 people. Northampton’s rate is down 84% since its December peak.

The additional case rates have surged and retreated at different rates throughout the pandemic. Lehigh and Northampton counties had been above the statewide rate throughout the first wave last spring, but then remained lower through the summer until the massive surge began in November, eclipsing the first wave’s case counts.

Northampton County reached its peak seven-day case rate of 93.9 cases per day per 100,000 residents on Dec. 10. Lehigh peaked at 94.6 cases per day on Jan. 11, but then rapidly declined. Both counties had been among the most active for adding cases for much of this year until the recent declines, with Northampton County having the state’s highest population-adjusted case rate for several days leading into the third wave at the end of March.

To date, there have been 1.18 million infections statewide since the start of the pandemic.

Vaccinations

The Lehigh Valley has consistently topped the statewide rates for vaccinating its residents, with more than 64% of its 12-and-over population — 373,000 people — having gotten at least one of the 605,000 shots administered locally. Combined data from the state and Philadelphia health departments show that 59.6% of the state’s 12-and-older population — 6.6 million people — have gotten at least one of the 10.93 million jabs given in the state.

There are almost 4.7 million Pennsylvanians who are fully vaccinated, with about 250,000 of them in the Valley, accounting for 42.4% of those eligible statewide, and 43% of the Valley’s eligible people. About 1.9 million people statewide need their follow-up shot, with 123,000 of them in the Valley.

The state Health Department, which oversees vaccinations everywhere except Philadelphia, reports that the number of vaccinations per day is 66,156, down 28% in the last month. Lehigh Valley residents are getting an average of 30,090 shots in the arm per day, down 25.7% over the last month.

Deaths

Overall: 27 compared with 38 on Thursday. The seven-day moving average of deaths per day is 33, compared with 39 a week ago. The death rate is down 2% over the last 30 days.

Senior Care: Eight compared with two on Thursday. That brings the total to 13,208, accounting for 49.4% of the state’s 26,724 deaths.

Hospitalizations

There were 1,605 people hospitalized as of midday Friday, compared with 1,652 Thursday. Of those, 373 were in intensive care, and 237 were on ventilators. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has declined 30% in the last month

Hospitals in the Lehigh Valley reported 121 COVID-19 patients Friday compared with 124 Thursday, including 25 in intensive care, and 24 on ventilators.

Testing

There were 10,677 test results reported Friday, with 12.7% of them positive, compared with 16% on Thursday.

The overall positive test rate is 18.1% since the state’s first cases were reported March 6 of last year.

Lehigh Valley

Cases: 126 additional case reports, with 60 in Lehigh County, 66 in Northampton County. That brings the total to 74,354.

Deaths: No new deaths reported Friday, compared with one the day before. That brings the total to 1,550 (847 in Lehigh, and 703 in Northampton).