State virus cases near half-million
The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Monday reported a twoday total of 18,646 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the state to the cusp of half a million total cases since March.
The new cases come as health care systems in the state continue to buckle from the overwhelming increase of infected patients, with 5,970 people currently hospitalized.
“We do continue to hear of additional hospitals across the state that have very few [intensive care unit] beds left or even no ICU beds left,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said Monday in a virtual briefing.
“Our health care workers are being stretched to the limit, both in terms of the stress that they are under, but also in terms of working and the number of patients that they are seeing,” Dr. Levine added.
“We have to work together to protect them from contracting the virus itself and ensure that there is adequate staffing at our hospitals.”
The department is now reporting a statewide positivity rate of 16.2% from Dec. 4 to Thursday, up from 14.4% the prior week, and said all 67 counties have reached “substantial transmission status.” All counties in the commonwealth currently have a percent positivity above 5%, with Bedford and Crawford counties above 30%.
The state also reported an increase of over 100 people using ventilators, reaching an average of 633 COVID-19 patients on ventilators at the end of last week.
As of Thursday, the state has seen a seven-day case increase of 60,412 cases; the previous seven-day increase was 50,577 cases, indicating 9,835 more new cases across the state over the past week compared to the previous week.
A total of 184 new deaths were reported between Sunday and Monday. A total of 12,565 Pennsylvanians to date have died after contracting the virus, according to the state health department.
The Allegheny County Health Department on Monday reported a two-day total of 1,647 new cases of COVID19; the state reports the positivity rate in the county has reached 14.6%.
The new cases are among people ranging from 2 weeks to 100 years old with a median age of 45. The positive tests were conducted between Oct. 20 and Sunday, but only 26 of them are from before last week, the department said.
The department also reported five new deaths from the virus, with one of the decedents in their 60s, three in their 70s and one over 80. Three of those people were “associated with long-term care facilities,” but the department did not specify which of the three or which long-term care facilities.
The new cases bring the total count to 40,874 cases in Allegheny County alone, which has led to 2,537 hospitalizations and 665 deaths.
This week, 97,500 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer will be administered to health care workers in 83 hospitals across Pennsylvania. Those hospitals were chosen because they have the freezers required to store the vaccine at the required sub-zero temperatures, Dr. Levine said.
Those doses represent the first of two shots required for the vaccine to be effective; the second doses are being stored with the federal government to be administered in three weeks.
Dr. Levine called the deployment of the vaccine “tremendously exciting” and emphasized the rigorous processes that were completed to determine its efficacy and safety, but she also stressed the need to be realistic about the rollout, which will take a “significant” amount of time.