Centre County has returned to the high community level for COVID-19 after being at the low level for 12 weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control’s latest weekly update on Thursday night.
At the high level, the CDC recommends universal masking at indoor places open to the public.
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. To be at the high level requires 200 or more new cases per 100,000, with 10 or more COVID hospital admissions per 100,000 and/or a seven-day average of 10% of hospital beds occupied by COVID inpatients.
Centre County had a case rate of 248.79 and 13.7 new COVID admissions per 100,000 people over the last week, with 5.7% of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 inpatients.
Mount Nittany Medical Center had 10 COVID-19 inpatients on Thursday, down from 11 each of the past four days. One is in intensive care and none are on ventilators. The patients range in age from 36 to 97. Seven 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 10.85.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s weekly update on Wednesday, Centre County added 404 total new cases over the last week, an 30% increase over new cases from the previous seven days. The county’s seven-day rolling average of 57 is its highest since Feb. 12.
Centre County has had a total of 36,730 COVID-19 cases (32,558 confirmed and 4,172 probable) since March 2020.
DOH also recorded three new deaths attributed to the virus among Centre County residents, bringing the total to 355.
Statewide, 28 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties are at the high level. Fifteen are at the low level and 24 are at the medium level.
Pennsylvania registered 29,664 new positives over the last week, a 6% increase from the prior week.
The statewide case total since the start of the pandemic is now 2,907,324.
With 249 new COVID-19 deaths identified by the Pennsylvania death registry in the last week, the statewide total is now 45,147.
Positivity rate
Centre County’s PCR testing positivity rate for the week of May 18-24 was 18.9%, up from 14.2% the previous seven days, according to the DOH early warning monitoring dashboard. The rate was the 20th highest among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
The statewide positivity rate was 17.3%, up from 16.6% the previous seven days.
Vaccinations
As of Wednesday morning, 95,945people in Centre County are fully vaccinated, an increase of 143 since May 18, and 14,298 are partially covered [+22]. First booster doses have been administered to 51,442 county residents [+327] and 7,461 have received a second booster [+859].
Among the county’s entire population, 70.88% have received at least one dose, 60.2% are fully vaccinated and 52.5% are fully vaccinated with a booster, according to the CDC. Among adult residents, 76.2% have received at least one dose, 64.4% are fully vaccinated and 55% have received a booster.
Statewide, 78.5% of adults and 69% 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 18, 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): 9,002 confirmed [+87], 1,291 probable [+13]
16823 (Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap): 6,408 confirmed [+66], 578 probable [+2]
16803 (State College): 3,513 confirmed [+74], 740 probable [+4]
16866 (Philipsburg): 2,147 confirmed [+16], 302 probable [+1]
16802 (University Park): 1,895 confirmed [+9], 307 probable [+3]
16870 (Port Matilda): 1,361 confirmed [+19], 181 probable [+6]
16841 (Howard): 1,120 confirmed [+8], 100 probable
16828 (Centre Hall): 849 confirmed [+33], 82 probable [+1]
16827 (Boalsburg): 804 confirmed [+20], 105 probable
16875 (Spring Mills): 660 confirmed [+4], 75 probable
16844 (Julian): 550 confirmed [+2], 53 probable
16845 (Karthaus): 521 confirmed, 35 probable
16877 (Warrior’s Mark): 306 confirmed [+2], 29 probable
16853 (Milesburg): 291 confirmed [+1], 20 probable
16874 (Snow Shoe): 284 confirmed [+1], 38 probable
16826 (Blanchard): 252 confirmed [+2], 16 probable
16865 (Pennsylvania Furnace): 241 confirmed [+1], 23 probable [+1]
16820 (Aaronsburg): 197 confirmed, 27 probable
16854 (Millheim): 187 confirmed [+2], 16 probable
16829 (Clarence): 183 confirmed, 25 probable
16872 (Rebersburg): 174 confirmed [+2], 16 probable
16851 (Lemont): 169 confirmed [+2], 30 probable
16868 (Pine Grove Mills): 108 confirmed [+2], 12 probable [+1]
16859 (Moshannon): 100 confirmed, 6 probable
16832 (Coburn): 93 confirmed, 9 probable
16677 (Sandy Ridge): 84 confirmed [+1], 5 probable
16835 (Fleming): 60 confirmed, 8 probable
16856 (Mingoville): 52 confirmed, 10 probable
16852 (Madisonburg): 53 confirmed [+1], 5 probable
16882 (Woodward): 40 confirmed, 5 confirmed
16863 (Orviston): 22 confirmed [+2]
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 18]
Blair: 30,272 [+199]
Clearfield: 19,828 [+151]
Mifflin: 12,438 [+43]
Union: 11,967 [+57]
Huntingdon: 11,726 [+73]
Clinton: 9,325 [+71]
