After spending a week at the high level, Centre County moved to the medium community level for COVID-19 in the Centers for Disease Control’s latest update on Thursday evening.
At the medium level, the CDC recommends that those at high risk of severe illness talk to their health care provider about whether they need to wear a mask and take other precautions.
The county had spent 12 weeks at the low community level before moving to high last week then down to medium on Thursday. At the high level universal masking in places open to the public is recommended.
State College Area School District, which reinstated a mask mandate in district buildings this week because of the high community level, will return to optional masking on Friday, Superintendent Bob O’Donnell wrote in a message to families on Thursday night. Friday is the district’s last school day for the 2021-22 academic year
Community levels measure new cases and new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 people over seven days, along with the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients. With more than 200 new cases per 100,000, the medium level requires fewer than 10 COVID hospital admissions per 100,000 and/or a seven-day average of less than 10% of hospital beds occupied by COVID inpatients.
Centre County had a case rate of 216.5 and 9.5 new COVID admissions per 100,000 people over the last week, both down from last week, with 7.7% of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 inpatients, up from 5.7% last week.
Mount Nittany Medical Center had 15 COVID-19 inpatients on Thursday, down from 19 each on Wednesday. None are intensive care or on ventilators. The patients range in age from 30 to 96. Twelve are vaccinated and three are not, according to hospital’s COVID inpatient dashboard.
Over the last seven days, Mount Nittany has had an average daily COVID inpatient census of 16, up from 10.85 the previous week.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s weekly update on Wednesday, Centre County added 351 total new cases over the last week, a 14% decrease from new cases recorded the previous seven days. The county’s seven-day rolling average for new cases is 50.1, down from 57 a week ago.
Centre County has had a total of 37,081 COVID-19 cases (32,874 confirmed and 4,207 probable) since March 2020.
Statewide, 27 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties are at the low level, 23 are at medium and 17 are at high.
Pennsylvania registered 24,862 new positives over the last week, a 16% decrease from the prior week.
The statewide case total since the start of the pandemic is now 2,932,186.
Deaths
DOH reported no new deaths attributed to the virus among Centre County residents in the last week, keeping the total at 355.
With 107 new COVID-19 deaths identified by the Pennsylvania death registry in the last week, the statewide total is now 45,254.
Positivity rate
Centre County’s PCR testing positivity rate for the week of May 25-31 was 18.5%, down slightly from 18.7% the previous seven days, according to the DOH early warning monitoring dashboard. The rate was the 13th highest among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
The statewide positivity rate was 15.8%, down from 17.3% the previous seven days.
Vaccinations
As of Wednesday morning, 96,087 people in Centre County are fully vaccinated, an increase of 142 since May 25, and 14,285 are partially covered [-13]. First booster doses have been administered to 51,719 county residents [+277] and 8,163 have received a second booster [+702].
Among the county’s entire population, 70.9% have received at least one dose, 60.3% are fully vaccinated and 52.7% are fully vaccinated with a booster, according to the CDC. Among adult residents, 76.3% have received at least one dose, 64.5% are fully vaccinated and 55.1% have received a booster.
Statewide, 78.7% of adults and 69.1% 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.
All individuals age 12 and older are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot. All individuals 50 and older and certain immunocompromised individuals are now eligible for a second booster shot.
Centre County’s cases by zip code:
*Note: Numbers in brackets reflect changes since May 25, when DOH last updated zip code data. 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): 9,079 confirmed [+77], 1,299 probable [+8]
16823 (Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap): 6,458 confirmed [+50], 583 probable [+5]
16803 (State College): 3,580 confirmed [+67], 752 probable [+12]
16866 (Philipsburg): 2,160 confirmed [+13], 302 probable
16802 (University Park): 1,896 confirmed [+1], 307 probable
16870 (Port Matilda): 1,381 confirmed [+20], 185 probable [+4]
16841 (Howard): 1,131 confirmed [+11], 100 probable
16828 (Centre Hall): 857 confirmed [+8], 82 probable
16827 (Boalsburg): 824 confirmed [+20], 107 probable [+2]
16875 (Spring Mills): 676 confirmed [+16], 77 probable [+2]
16844 (Julian): 550 confirmed, 53 probable
16845 (Karthaus): 522 confirmed [+1], 35 probable
16877 (Warrior’s Mark): 310 confirmed [+4], 30 probable [+1]
16853 (Milesburg): 291 confirmed, 20 probable
16874 (Snow Shoe): 284 confirmed, 39 probable [+1]
16826 (Blanchard): 255 confirmed [+3], 16 probable
16865 (Pennsylvania Furnace): 243 confirmed [+2], 23 probable
16820 (Aaronsburg): 197 confirmed, 27 probable
16854 (Millheim): 188 confirmed [+1], 16 probable
16829 (Clarence): 185 confirmed [+2], 25 probable
16872 (Rebersburg): 175 confirmed [+1], 16 probable
16851 (Lemont): 169 confirmed, 30 probable
16868 (Pine Grove Mills): 109 confirmed [+1], 12 probable
16859 (Moshannon): 100 confirmed, 6 probable
16832 (Coburn): 93 confirmed, 10 probable [+1]
16677 (Sandy Ridge): 86 confirmed [+2], 5 probable
16835 (Fleming): 60 confirmed, 8 probable
16856 (Mingoville): 52 confirmed, 10 probable
16852 (Madisonburg): 53 confirmed, 5 probable
16882 (Woodward): 40 confirmed, 5 confirmed
16863 (Orviston): 22 confirmed
16804 (State College): 21 confirmed, 1-4 confirmed
16805 (State College): 1-4 confirmed
Cases among Centre County’s bordering counties
[Changes in brackets are since May 25]
Blair: 30,467 [+195]
Clearfield: 19,973 [+145]
Mifflin: 12,489 [+51]
Union: 12,022 [+55]
Huntingdon: 11,787 [+61]
Clinton: 9,410 [+85]
