5,800 COVID-19 cases added Thursday

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 5,819 additional coronavirus cases Thursday. The total of 34,324 cases over the last seven days translates to a moving average of 4,903 cases per day, up 7% from a week ago, and up 41% over the last 30 days.

To date, there have been 1.46 million infections statewide.

With Sullivan County’s recent uptick in case numbers, all 67 Pennsylvania counties are once again in the high community transmission classification. There are nine counties more than five times the threshold of 100 cases per week for every 100,000 residents that defines high community transmission. Another 50 counties — including Northampton — have at least twice the high transmission rate.

Fulton County, with a rate of 667.6 population-adjusted weekly cases, remains the place with the highest caseload, as it has for most of the past 30 days. Potter (629.3), Venango (594.1), Armstrong (571.6) and McKean (566.2) round out the top five counties in the state.

Philadelphia has the lowest rate at 127.5 cases per week for every 100,000 residents.

It is followed by Delaware (145.7), Montgomery (153.8), Sullivan (164.9) and Chester (180.6). Lehigh County has the state’s sixth-lowest rate at 191.4 weekly cases for every 100,000 residents.

The state reported 92 deaths. The sevenday moving average of deaths per day is 59.1, compared with 52.9 a week ago, an increase of

12% in the last seven days. For comparison, the state averaged four deaths per day at the beginning of August. The current rate is 15 times higher.

The latest data from the U.S. Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention shows there are 7.47 million fully vaccinated people in Pennsylvania, accounting for 58.3% of the population. An additional 1.93 million people are in need of their follow-up shot. In total, 16.43 million shots have been put into the arms of 9.39 million people, or 73.4% of the state’s residents.

Included in those statewide numbers are 415,194 Lehigh Valley residents who are fully vaccinated, accounting for 61.5% of the local population. In total, 525,829 locals have received 805,030 shots in the arm, accounting for 77.9% of the Valley’s population.

An average of 30,319 vaccinations are being administered to Pennsylvania residents each day, according to CDC data. Of those, 15,621 are first doses. The number of total vaccinations per day is down 2.5% over the last 30 days. The number of first doses being given per day is down 4.4% over the last 30 days, although first doses are up 19% week-to-week.

There have been 237,156 booster shots administered to Pennsylvanians according to data combined from the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia health departments, including 7,929 in Lehigh County and 6,671 in Northampton County.

There were 3,001 people hospitalized as of midday Thursday, compared with 2,891 Wednesday. Of those, 680 were in intensive care, and 370 were on ventilators. It is the first time more than 3,000 COVID patients have been hospitalized in Pennsylvania since Feb. 5.

Statewide hospitalizations have increased 3.2% over the last week, and are up 48.1% in the last 30 days.

Hospitals in the five-county region including Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Schuylkill and Monroe report 232 patients, with 48 in intensive care, and 15 on ventilators.

Regional hospitalizations have increased 3.9% over the last week, and are up 34.9% in the last 30 days. The average number of people in the area’s hospitals is equivalent to where it was in late April.

The Lehigh Valley reported 244 additional cases, with 126 in Lehigh County and 118 in Northampton County. That brings the total to 89,559.

One new death, in Northampton County, brings the total to 1,680 (914 in Lehigh, 766 in Northampton).