12,364 additional cases, 92 deaths reported for week

The Pennsylvania Department of Health issued its first weekly COVID-19 update Wednesday, stating in a media briefing that it was joining 40 other states in transitioning from daily to weekly reports. An additional 12,364 infections were reported over the course of the week, averaging 1,766 cases per day. That’s a slight increase from the week before, but it is more than 2.5 times higher than the rate reported a month ago.

Northampton County ranks seventh of the 67 counties for highest infection rate when adjusted for population, adding 475 cases this week, or 155.6 cases per 100,000 residents. Lehigh County is 17th, accumulating 449 cases over the week, or 121.6 per 100,000 residents. Northampton has been near the top for the last 30 days.

The top counties for the week are concentrated on the border with New York: Bradford (361.4), Sullivan (247.3), Susquehanna (213.3), Wyoming (190.3) and Montour (159.1).

To date, there have been 2.83 million infections throughout Pennsylvania.

Deaths

There were 92 additional COVID-related deaths reported in the past week, an average of 13.1 deaths per day, an increase of 48% over the previous week. There have been 44,733 deaths in Pennsylvania since March 2020.

Hospitalizations

There have been an average of 669 hospitalized COVID patients over the past week, according to

Health Department data, compared with 521 the week before. Hospitalizations have increased 28% in a week, and are up 47% over the past month.

Hospitals in Lehigh and Northampton counties have averaged 55 COVID-19 patients over the past week, an increase of 26% over the previous week and up 43% in the past month. There are six people in local intensive care beds, with four on ventilators.

Vaccinations

The latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show:

There are 8.77 million fully vaccinated people in Pennsylvania, accounting for 68.5% of the population. An additional 2.1 million people are in need of their follow-up shot. In total, 23.05 million shots have been put into the arms of 10.87 million people, or 84.9% of the state’s residents.

An average of 15,145 vaccinations are being administered to Pennsylvania residents each day, according to CDC data. Of those, 3,167 are first doses. The number of total vaccinations per day is up 75% over the last 30 days. The number of first doses being given per day is up 18.9% over the last 30 days.

Lehigh Valley

Cases: 924 in the past week, with 449 in Lehigh County and 475 in Northampton County. That brings the total to 171,753.

Deaths: Four reported this week, with three in Lehigh County and one in Northampton County. There have been 2,335 local COVID-related deaths.