Friday, March 29, 2024
Home » News » COVID » Centre County Remains at Low COVID-19 Community Level as New Cases, Hospitalizations Continue to Decline Statewide

Centre County Remains at Low COVID-19 Community Level as New Cases, Hospitalizations Continue to Decline Statewide

Centre County remained at the low COVID-19 community level for a seventh consecutive week as reported new cases and hospitalizations linked to the virus continued to plummet statewide, according to the Centers for Disease Control’s weekly update.

Most of Pennsylvania — 65 of 67 counties — was at the low level, with only Elk and Mercer counties at the moderate level. It marked the fifth consecutive week that none of the commonwealth’s counties were at the high level. Reported new cases statewide fell for the seventh consecutive week and were at their lowest level since the state health department switched to weekly reports last May.

At the low level, the CDC recommends wearing a mask if symptomatic, if an individual has tested positive for COVID-19 or has been exposed to someone who has, and when on public transportation, but does not recommend universal indoor masking in public places.

Mount Nittany Health on Wednesday announced that masks are no longer required in its facilities, except for individuals who have tested positive for or are showing symptoms of COVID-19.

HOSPITALIZATIONS AND CASES
For a county to be at the low level, it has fewer than 200 new cases per 100,000 people over a seven-day period, with fewer than 10 COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people and less than 10% of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients over the same period.

Centre County had a case rate of 28.33 per 100,000 people (down from 35.72 last week) and 4.2 new COVID admissions per 100,000 (down from 6), with 3.2% of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 inpatients (down from 3.8%).

Mount Nittany Medical Center had three COVID-19 inpatients as of the hospital’s inpatient dashboard update on Friday. None are in intensive care or on ventilators. For the week of April 8-14, Mount Nittany had an average daily COVID inpatient census of 3.2, down from 7.1 last week.

The county added 46 reported new cases in the last week, 12 fewer than the previous seven days, according to Pennsylvania Department of Health data. The seven-day rolling average for new cases was 6.6, down from 8.3.

A total of 44,571 COVID-19 cases (39,799 confirmed and 4,772 probable) have been reported among Centre County residents since March 2020.

STATEWIDE

Pennsylvania registered 3,473 reported new positives over the last week, 569 fewer than the previous week’s new cases. The rolling seven-day average of 496 new cases is down from 577 the prior week.

The commonwealth’s case total since the start of the pandemic is now 3,551,440.

Hospitalizations linked to the virus declined for the 14th consecutive week. According to DOH data, 430 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized statewide as of Wednesday, 136 fewer than a week earlier, with 55 in intensive care [-15] and 24 on ventilators [-11].

DEATHS
DOH recorded one new death attributed to the virus among Centre County residents in the last week, bringing the total to 402.

With 80 new COVID-19 deaths identified by the Pennsylvania death registry in the last week, the statewide total is now 50,860.

Pennsylvania and Centre County COVID-19 dashboard for April 12, 2023. Image via Pennsylvania Department of Health.

POSITIVITY RATE
Centre County’s PCR testing positivity rate for the week of April 5-11 was 5.5%, down from 5.8% the previous seven days, according to the DOH early warning monitoring dashboard. The rate was 37th lowest among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.

The statewide positivity rate was 5.2%, down from 6% the prior week.

VACCINATIONS
As of Wednesday morning, 103,169 people in Centre County have completed the primary vaccination series, an increase of 37 since April 5, and 13,033 are partially covered [+2]. Bivalent booster doses have been administered to 31,087 31,162 county residents [+75].

Among the county’s entire population, 75.4% have received at least one dose and 64% have completed the primary vaccine series, while 21.2% have received the bivalent booster, according to the CDC. Among adult residents, 80.2% have received at least one dose, 67.8% have completed the primary series and 23.4% have received the bivalent booster booster.

Statewide, 82.9% of adults and 73.6% of the total population have completed the primary series, while the bivalent booster has been administered to 22.6% of adults and 19% of the total population.

Vaccination appointments are available through pharmacies and providers listed at vaccines.gov.

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): 10,678 confirmed [+3], 1,438 probable [+1]

16823 (Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap): 7,915 confirmed [+7], 674 probable

16803 (State College): 4,619 confirmed [+7], 889 probable [+4]

16866 (Philipsburg): 2,905 confirmed [+19], 366 probable [+1]

16802 (University Park): 2,133 confirmed [+1], 318 probable

16870 (Port Matilda): 1,725 confirmed [+1], 231 probable

16841 (Howard): 1,356 confirmed [+3], 115 probable

16827 (Boalsburg): 1,063 confirmed, 139 probable

16828 (Centre Hall): 1,044 confirmed [+2], 104 probable

16875 (Spring Mills): 829 confirmed [+1], 90 probable

16844 (Julian): 667 confirmed, 57 probable

16845 (Karthaus): 573 confirmed, 33 probable

16853 (Milesburg): 379 confirmed , 20 probable

16874 (Snow Shoe): 356 confirmed, 41 probable

16877 (Warrior’s Mark): 356 confirmed [+1], 35 probable

16826 (Blanchard): 306 confirmed, 18 probable

16865 (Pennsylvania Furnace): 299 confirmed, 31 probable

16851 (Lemont): 235 confirmed [+2], 34 probable

16829 (Clarence): 227 confirmed, 26 probable

16820 (Aaronsburg): 226 confirmed [+1], 28 probable

16854 (Millheim): 214 confirmed, 20 probable

16872 (Rebersburg): 202 confirmed, 17 probable

16868 (Pine Grove Mills): 133 confirmed, 15 probable

16859 (Moshannon): 132 confirmed, 6 probable

16677 (Sandy Ridge): 115 confirmed, 6 probable

16832 (Coburn): 110 confirmed, 12 probable

16835 (Fleming): 74 confirmed, 7 probable

16852 (Madisonburg): 64 confirmed, 6 probable

16856 (Mingoville): 61 confirmed [+1], 12 probable

16882 (Woodward): 49 confirmed, 5 confirmed

16863 (Orviston): 25 confirmed

16804 (State College): 24 confirmed, 1-4 confirmed

16805 (State College): 1-4 confirmed

CASES AMONG CENTRE COUNTY’S BORDERING COUNTIES

Blair: 35,417 [+18] Low Community Level

Clearfield: 24,706 [+40] Low Community Level

Mifflin: 15,270 [+11] Low Community Level

Huntingdon: 13,964 [+13] Low Community Level

Union: 13,621 [+8] Low Community Level

Clinton: 11,289 [+12] Low Community Level