29,664 cases this week; deaths triple to 249 in 7 days

There have been 29,664 additional coronavirus cases accumulated in the past seven days, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The seven-day moving average of newly reported cases was 4,238 cases per day, up 6% from a week ago, and up 159.8% over the past 30 days.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Community Level tool shows the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on each county, taking into account virus transmission levels, hospitalizations and how they are predicted to stress the local health care infrastructure.

The measure, updated weekly, shows that 28 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties are highly impacted by the pandemic, accounting for more than 7 million residents — 55.3% of the state’s population. Almost all counties in eastern Pennsylvania, with the exceptions of Pike, Berks and Philadelphia, are labeled as having high levels this week.

Isolating viral transmission from other measures, 64 of 67 counties, accounting for 99.5% of the state’s population, are experiencing high virus transmission rates. High transmission is defined as having more than 100 cases per 100,000 population over seven days. Northampton County is approaching triple that rate — 281.4 weekly cases per 100,000 residents. Lehigh County’s rate is more than double the high transmission threshold — 238.3 cases per 100,000 residents each week.

The highest viral rates in Pennsylvania are currently in Allegheny (348.2), Bradford (326.6), Cameron (314.8), Luzerne (301.8) and Lackawanna (287.6). The statewide rate for the past seven days is 232 cases per 100,000 Pennsylvanians.

To date, there have been 2.91 million infections statewide.

Deaths

There were 249 additional deaths reported in the past week. The seven-day moving average of deaths per day is 35.6, compared with 12 a week ago, an increase of 196.4% in the last seven days. Pennsylvania has recorded 45,147 deaths since March 2020.

Hospitalizations

The seven-day average of COVID patients was 1,221.3 this week, an increase of 13% over last week, and up 142% over the past 30 days. An average of 146 COVID19 patients were in Pennsylvania’s intensive care units this week, with 62 on ventilators.

Hospitals in the Lehigh Valley reported 111 average COVID-19 patients this week compared with 100 last week. There were an average of 9.1 patients in local ICUs this week, with 6.4 on ventilators. Local hospitalizations are up 145% in the past month.

Vaccinations

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

There are 8.83 million fully vaccinated people in Pennsylvania, accounting for 69% of the population. An additional 2.1 million people are in need of their follow-up shot. In total, 23.42 million shots have been put into the arms of 10.94 million people, or 85.4% of the state’s residents.

Included in those statewide numbers are 480,568 Lehigh Valley residents who are fully vaccinated, accounting for 71.2% of the local population. In total, 558,771 locals have received 1,218,239 shots in the arm, accounting for 82.8% of the Valley’s population.

An average of 16,462 vaccinations are being administered to Pennsylvania residents each day, according to CDC data. Of those, 2,797 are first doses. The number of total vaccinations per day is up 62.3% over the past 30 days. The number of first doses being given per day is down 5.1% over the past 30 days.

Lehigh Valley

Cases: 1,739 additional cases this week, with 880 in Lehigh County and 859 in Northampton County. That brings the total to 176,865.

Deaths: 16 COVID-related deaths this week. There were 7 in Lehigh County and 9 in Northampton County. The local death toll stands at 2,369 (1,260 in Lehigh and 1,109 in Northampton).