Centre County registered two new COVID-19 deaths and 243 more cases of the virus on Saturday, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
The county now has 315 deaths attributed to COVID-19, including 26 reported this month. The new cases bring the county’s total to 31,917 (28,541 confirmed and 3,376 probable).
Centre County’s seven-day moving average for new cases per day is 224, down from 285 a week ago.
Pennsylvania recorded its sixth consecutive day with fewer than 20,000 new cases. The 17,623 new positives bring the the commonwealth’s total to 2,560,167.
The statewide seven-day average is 19,244, down from 26,414 one week ago.
With 125 new COVID-19 deaths identified by the Pennsylvania death registry, the statewide total is now 39,487.
Hospitalizations
According to DOH’s hospital preparedness dashboard, 49 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized in Centre County, three fewer than on Friday, with six in intensive care [-2] and five on ventilators.
While statewide COVID-19 hospitalizations have declined in the last week, Mount Nittany Medical Center’s remain elevated. The hospital’s average daily COVID inpatient census in January is 44, down from the record high of 57 in December but still the third highest daily average of the pandemic.
“We continue to care for a high number of COVID positive patients at the medical center,” Dr. Upendra Thaker, chief medical officer, said in a statement on Friday. “Community spread is extremely high, and we cannot stress enough the importance of mitigation measures right now. While early data indicates that infection from the COVID-19 Omicron variant may lead to less severe illness for healthy individuals, others with conditions such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes or a weakened immune system, could experience more severe illness. Vaccination is key to reducing the severity of illness.”
Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 hospitalizations fell for the sixth consecutive day. According to the hospital preparedness dashboard, 6,534 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized statewide, 260 fewer than on Friday, with 1,040 patients in intensive care [-66] and 642 on ventilators [-5].
For the week of Jan. 14 to 20, Pennsylvania had 7,128 average daily COVID-specific hospitalizations, down from 7,527 the previous seven days, according to DOH’s early warning monitoring dashboard.
Positivity rate
Centre County’s PCR testing positivity rate for the week of Jan. 14-20 was 28.3%, down slightly from 28.6% the previous seven days and marking a decline for the second straight week, according to the monitoring dashboard. The rate was 17th lowest among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
The county had 1,369 new cases for that seven-day period, 342 fewer than the prior week.
The statewide positivity rate was 31%, down from 35.2%, the previous seven days. The commonwealth had 113,944 new positives between Jan. 14-20, 48,431 fewer than the prior week.
Transmission level
All 67 counties in Pennsylvania are at the highest level for community transmission of COVID-19 on the Centers for Disease Control scale, according to the latest county-level data update.
Transmission levels are based on positivity rate and cases per 100,000 people for the previous seven days. At the substantial and high levels, CDC guidance recommends all people, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in public indoor settings.
Cases Among Children
For the 2021-2022 school year, DOH is providing weekly updated case counts for two age groups: 0-4 capturing preschool and daycare age children and 5-18 capturing kindergarten through high school age children. The case counts do not necessarily represent exposure in school or daycare settings and the location of exposure cannot be determined in most cases.
For the week of Jan. 12-18, there were 67 new cases among children in the 0-4 age group and 298 in the 5-18 age group in Centre County. About 24% of all cases in Centre County that week were among children 0-18.
Since Aug. 16, there have been 2,540 cases among individuals between the ages of 0 and 18 in Centre County — 457 between the ages of 0-4 and 2,083 between the ages of 5 and 18 — representing about 19% of all cases during that time.
Nursing and Personal Care Home Cases
DOH reported no new cases for long-term care facilities in Centre County on Saturday. A total of 20 nursing and personal care homes in the county have had a combined 732 resident cases, 689 employee cases and 180 resident deaths.
Prison cases
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Benner state prison has four active COVID-19 cases among inmates and 23 among staff, three fewer than on Friday.
Rockview state prison has 57 active inmate cases [+3] and 52 among staff [-9].
Both facilities are in Benner Township.
At Benner, 1,476 inmates are fully vaccinated, 12 are partially vaccinated and 196 are not vaccinated. Among staff, 306 are fully vaccinated and 322 are not vaccinated.
Rockview has 1,692 inmates who are fully vaccinated, one who is partially vaccinated and 58 who are not vaccinated. Among staff, 343 are fully vaccinated and 374 are not vaccinated.
Vaccinations
As of Saturday morning, 92,541 people in Centre County are fully vaccinated, an increase of 63 since Friday, and 13,917 are partially covered [+67]. Booster doses have been administered to 45,873 county residents [+145].
Among the county’s entire population, 68% have received at least one dose, 58% are fully vaccinated and 48.3% are fully vaccinated with a booster, according to the CDC. Among adult residents, 73.3% have received at least one dose, 62.3% are fully vaccinated and 50.9% have received a booster.
Statewide, 75.2% of adults and 65.2% of the total population are fully vaccinated.
Vaccination appointments are available through Centre Volunteers in Medicine, Mount Nittany Health and through other pharmacies and providers listed at vaccines.gov. CVIM and Penn State also are providing a free vaccination clinic for ages 12 and older from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday at the Bryce Jordan Center
All individuals age 12 and older are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot.
Centre County’s cases by zip code:
*Note: Changes are in brackets. Specific numbers for zip codes with 1-4 cases are redacted by the health department. Cases are not always immediately assigned zip codes.
16801 (State College): 8,120 confirmed [+36], 971 probable [+23]
16823 (Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap): 5,555 confirmed [+38], 515 probable [+3]
16803 (State College): 2,928 confirmed [+12], 548 probable [+8]
16866 (Philipsburg): 1,803 confirmed [+14], 279 probable [+1]
16802 (University Park): 1,778 confirmed [+8], 203 probable [+12]
16870 (Port Matilda): 1,134 confirmed [+8], 148 probable
16841 (Howard): 974 confirmed [+18], 93 probable [-2]
16828 (Centre Hall): 679 confirmed [+4], 76 probable
16827 (Boalsburg): 670 confirmed [+3], 87 probable
16875 (Spring Mills): 609 confirmed [+4], 67 probable
16844 (Julian): 505 confirmed [+3], 50 probable
16845 (Karthaus): 470 confirmed [+5], 34 probable [+2]
16853 (Milesburg): 258 confirmed [+1], 19 probable [+1]
16874 (Snow Shoe): 252 confirmed [+1], 38 probable [+1]
16877 (Warrior’s Mark): 251 confirmed [+2], 30 probable
16826 (Blanchard): 220 confirmed [+5], 15 probable
16865 (Pennsylvania Furnace): 199 confirmed [+3], 20 probable
16829 (Clarence): 162 confirmed, 25 probable
16854 (Millheim): 163 confirmed [+3], 15 probable
16820 (Aaronsburg): 161 confirmed [+1], 24 probable
16872 (Rebersburg): 142 confirmed [+1], 15 probable
16851 (Lemont): 139 confirmed, 24 probable
16859 (Moshannon): 94 confirmed [+2], 6 probable
16868 (Pine Grove Mills): 81 confirmed, 10 probable
16832 (Coburn): 80 confirmed [+1], 7 probable
16677 (Sandy Ridge): 68 confirmed, 6 probable
16835 (Fleming): 55 confirmed, 8 probable
16856 (Mingoville): 46 confirmed [+1], 10 probable
16852 (Madisonburg): 41 confirmed [+1], 5 probable
16882 (Woodward): 36 confirmed, 1-4 confirmed
16804 (State College): 18 confirmed
16863 (Orviston): 18 confirmed
16805 (State College): 1-4 confirmed
Cases among Centre County’s bordering counties
Blair: 26,366 [+236]
Clearfield: 17,092 [+166]
Mifflin: 10,780 [+107]
Union: 10,553 [+72]
Huntingdon: 10,127 [+103]
Clinton: 8,127 [+84]
