Centre County registered new COVID-19 deaths for the fifth consecutive day and added 255 cases of the virus on Friday, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
With two new deaths attributed to the virus, Centre County has 283 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic, including 25 reported this month. At least one COVID-19 death among Centre County residents has been reported 10 of the last 11 days.
The new cases are the county’s second-highest single-day increase and bring the local total to 25,172 (22,710 confirmed and 2,462 probable). The county also had 148 new negative test results to bring the total to 86,525.
Pennsylvania reported 13,286 new COVID-19 positives, the largest single-day increase of the pandemic, to bring the commonwealth’s total to 1,937,793.
Statewide, there were 5,813 new negatives for a total of 6,048,766.
With 90 new COVID-19 deaths identified by the Pennsylvania death registry, the statewide total is now 36,050.
Local hospitalizations
According to the DOH hospital preparedness dashboard, 60 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized in Centre County, three more than on Thursday, with five in intensive care and two on ventilators.
Through Thursday, Mount Nittany Medical Center has had an average daily census of 59 COVID-19 inpatients in December, its highest rate of the pandemic.
Mount Nittany’s chief medical officer said in a statement that the omicron variant has begun to outpace the delta variant in community transmission. While some preliminary data indicates omicron may cause less severe illness than seen with delta, he warned that there is still much uncertainty and that omicron appears to be much more highly transmissible.
“The omicron variant is here, and it’s concerning for a number of reasons,” Dr. Upendra Thaker said. “This variant is at least two to three times more transmissible than the delta variant, so it’s spreading very rapidly. Anyone who is exposed is very likely to spread it to others.”
He added that full vaccination and a booster provide the most protection against the omicron variant.
“If someone has had a previous COVID infection, they can still become infected with the Omicron variant,” Thaker said. “With this variant being so new, we do not know how it will affect patients with co-morbidities like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The preliminary data from South Africa and other countries shows healthy adults often have less severe illness with omicron. However, it is unclear what happens with people with other co-morbid conditions. With one or more co-morbidities, we could see more severe infections of the American population.”
Mount Nittany officials urged community members to take precautions as holiday celebrations continue, including getting vaccinated, avoiding large gatherings, wearing a mask, washing their hands and getting tested if they feel ill.
As a result of increasing hospitalizations, Mount Nittany has postponed elective surgeries requiring an overnight stay and all endoscopy procedures through Jan. 3. Emergency department waiting times remain significantly longer than normal as more people seek care. The current visitation policy for inpatients allows one designated visitor per patient, per day, during the visiting hours 2-6 p.m. daily.
Statewide hospitalizations
Pennsylvania had 4,425 COVID-19 inpatients, 51 fewer than on Thursday, with 904 in intensive care [-20] and 560 on ventilators [-23].
Statewide, there were 4,846.6 average daily COVID hospitalizations from Dec. 17-23, up from 4,581.3 the prior week, according to the updated Department of Health early warning monitoring dashboard.
An estimated 89% of COVID-19 patients in the state have recovered, according to a DOH calculation that considers a case as recovered if it has not been reported as a death and it is more than 30 days past the date of the first positive test or onset of symptoms.
Positivity rate
Centre County’s PCR testing positivity rate for the week of Dec. 17-23 was 14.8%, up from 11.5% the previous seven days, according to the monitoring dashboard. The rate was tied for 28th lowest among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
The county had 783 new cases for that seven-day period, 267 more than the prior week.
The statewide positivity rate was 15.3%, up from 14.4%, the previous seven days. The commonwealth had 50,758 new positives between Dec. 17-23, 6,322 more than the prior week.
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 Dec. 15-21, there were 22 new cases among children in the 0-4 age group and 54 in the 5-18 age group in Centre County. About 13% of all cases in Centre County that week were among children 0-18.
Since Aug. 16, there have been 1,390 cases among individuals between the ages of 0 and 18 in Centre County — 236 between the ages of 0-4 and 1,154 between the ages of 5 and 18 — representing about 19.5% of all cases during that time.
Prison cases
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Benner state prison has six active COVID-19 cases among inmates and 20 among staff.
Rockview state prison has 27 active inmate cases and seven among staff.
Both facilities are in Benner Township.
At Benner, 1,531 inmates are fully vaccinated, eight are partially vaccinated and 191 are not vaccinated. Among staff, 295 are fully vaccinated and 333 are not vaccinated.
Rockview has 1,684 inmates who are fully vaccinated and 64 who are not vaccinated. Among staff, 341 are fully vaccinated and 376 are not vaccinated.
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.
Vaccinations
As of Friday morning, 90,779 people in Centre County are fully vaccinated, an increase of 89 since Thursday, and 12,160 are partially covered [+70]. Booster doses have been administered to 34,818 county residents [+296].
Among the county’s entire population, 65.2% have received at least one dose and 56.7% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Among adult residents, 70.5% have received at least one dose and 61.3% are fully vaccinated.
Statewide, 73.8% of adults and 63.5% of the total population are fully vaccinated.
Vaccination appointments through Centre Volunteers in Medicine, Mount Nittany Health and through other pharmacies and providers listed at vaccines.gov.
All individuals age 16 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): 7,006 confirmed [+50], 650 probable [+1]
16823 (Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap): 4,404 confirmed [+25], 407 probable [-2]
16803 (State College): 2,125 confirmed [+33], 336 probable [+6]
16802 (University Park): 1,671 confirmed [+3], 104 probable
16866 (Philipsburg): 1,439 confirmed [+5], 235 probable [+4]
16870 (Port Matilda): 838 confirmed [+15], 117 probable [+1]
16841 (Howard): 762 confirmed [+5], 85 probable
16828 (Centre Hall): 540 confirmed [+6], 57 probable [+1]
16875 (Spring Mills): 515 confirmed [+1], 61 probable
16827 (Boalsburg): 485 confirmed [+7], 69 probable [-1]
16844 (Julian): 398 confirmed [+2], 48 probable
16845 (Karthaus): 394 confirmed [+1], 30 probable
16853 (Milesburg): 214 confirmed [+4], 12 probable [-1]
16877 (Warrior’s Mark): 207 confirmed, 23 probable
16874 (Snow Shoe): 207 confirmed [+3], 31 probable [+1]
16826 (Blanchard): 176 confirmed, 14 probable
16865 (Pennsylvania Furnace): 140 confirmed [+2], 12 probable
16854 (Millheim): 133 confirmed [+1], 13 probable
16820 (Aaronsburg): 132 confirmed, 25 probable
16829 (Clarence): 127 confirmed, 26 probable
16872 (Rebersburg): 111 confirmed, 13 probable
16851 (Lemont): 98 confirmed [+1], 21 probable [+1]
16859 (Moshannon): 72 confirmed [+2], 5 probable
16832 (Coburn): 64 confirmed, 5 probable
16677 (Sandy Ridge): 55 confirmed, 1-4 probable
16868 (Pine Grove Mills): 46 confirmed, 7 probable
16856 (Mingoville): 37 confirmed, 9 probable
16835 (Fleming): 36 confirmed, 8 probable
16852 (Madisonburg): 35 confirmed, 5 probable
16882 (Woodward): 28 confirmed, 1-4 confirmed
16863 (Orviston): 15 confirmed
16804 (State College): 14 confirmed
16805 (State College): 1-4 confirmed
Cases among Centre County’s bordering counties
Blair: 22,660 [+65]
Clearfield: 14,154 [+58]
Mifflin: 9,028 [+41]
Union: 8,816 [+34]
Huntingdon: 8,323 [+48]
Clinton: 6,604 [+29]
