Slight increase in COVID case rate breaks trend

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 5,162 additional coronavirus cases Thursday. The seven-day moving average of newly reported cases was 3,913 cases per day, up slightly from a week ago, and down 16.8% over the last 30 days.

The tiny uptick in the sevenday rate breaks a streak of more than three weeks of declining rates. It is unclear whether the higher numbers reported Thursday were affected by technical difficulties that prevented the release of numbers earlier in the week.

To date, there have been 1.58 million infections statewide.

The northwest corner of Pennsylvania continues a more than monthlong streak of having the highest population-adjusted coronavirus infection rates among the six health care regions. Its rate of 370.8 weekly cases for every 100,000 residents is more than 2.7 times higher than the southeast region’s 134.6.

The Lehigh Valley is in the northeast region, which, at 189.6 cases per week for every 100,000 residents, has the second-lowest rate of the six regions.

Thursday’s report included 72 additional deaths. The sevenday moving average of deaths per day is 70.1, compared with 68.1 a week ago, an increase of 3% in the last seven days. There have been 31,783 total deaths.

The latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows there are 7.78 million fully vaccinated people in Pennsylvania, accounting for 60.7% of the population. An additional 2.30 million people are in need of their follow-up shot. In total, 17.81 million shots have been put into the arms of 10.07 million people, or 78.7% of the state’s residents.

Included in those statewide numbers are 430,519 Lehigh Valley residents who are fully vaccinated, accounting for 63.8% of the local population. In total, 557,591 locals have received 805,030 shots in the arm, accounting for 82.7% of the Valley’s population. An average of 56,482 vaccinations are being administered to Pennsylvania residents each day, according to CDC data. Of those, 28,368 are first doses. The number of total vaccinations per day is up 106.3% over the last 30 days. The number of first doses being given per day is up 96.8% over the last 30 days.

There were 2,571 people hospitalized as of midday Thursday, compared with 2,613 Wednesday. Of those, 606 were in intensive care, and 366 were on ventilators.

Statewide hospitalizations have decreased 4.2% over the last week, and are down 5% in the last 30 days.

Hospitals in the five-county region including Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Schuylkill and Monroe report 206 patients, with 47 in intensive care, and 25 on ventilators.

Regional hospitalizations are unchanged over the last week, and are down 9.3% in the last 30 days.

The Lehigh Valley reported 213 additional cases, with 114 in Lehigh County and 99 in Northampton County. That brings the total to 93,928.

One new death, in Lehigh County, brings the total to 1,742 (944 in Lehigh, 798 in Northampton).

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