State’s 40,044 weekly cases is highest in 10 months

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 7,604 additional coronavirus cases on Friday, continuing a recent rapid increase in case numbers. The seven-day moving average of newly reported cases was 7,923 cases per day, up 66.1% from a week ago, and up 86.9% over the last 30 days.

Pennsylvania has added 55,458 cases in the past seven days, including 15,414 reinfection cases added Nov.13. Even without those cases, the 40,044 weekly case total is the highest seen since Jan. 21, when the state was coming out of its largest wave of the pandemic that peaked in mid-December.

The growth rate without the reinfection cases is 26.2% since last week, and 35% in the last 30 days.

Friday marks the third consecutive day that the state added more than 6,000 cases, a streak also not seen since mid-January.

To date, there have been 1.67 million infections statewide.

There were 96 additional deaths reported Friday. There were 3,095 people hospitalized as of midday Friday compared with 3,032 Thursday. Of those, 702 were in intensive care, and 381 were on ventilators. Statewide hospitalizations have increased 10.3% over the last week, and are down 3.9% in the last 30 days.

Hospitals in the five-county region including Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Schuylkill and Monroe report 276 patients, with 61 in intensive care, and 22 on ventilators. Regional hospitalizations have increased 29.1% over the last week, and are up 2.6% in the last 30 days.

There were 184 cases in Lehigh County, with no deaths. There were 152 in Northampton County, with one death.

— Eugene Tauber