Centre County Coroner Scott Sayers reported on Tuesday night 18 more COVID-19-related deaths that occurred between Nov. 26 and Monday.
The coroner’s office has now confirmed 89 deaths attributed to the virus in Centre County, with 71 of those reported in the last five weeks.
Fourteen of the new deaths — seven men and seven women between the ages of 64 and 90 years old — were from long-term care facilities. Ten were from a facility in the 16823 zip code, three from a facility in the 16866 zip code and one from a facility in the 16801 zip code.
Four others — three men and one woman — died in the hospital.
Since the onset of the pandemic, the COVID-19 deaths confirmed by the coroner’s office have ranged in age from 55 to 104.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has reported 110 COVID-19 deaths among Centre County residents, including 91 since the beginning of November. Though the reason for the difference between the DOH and coroner numbers is not entirely clear, DOH reports deaths by county of residency, regardless of where they occur, while the coroner’s office reports deaths that occur within the county.
According to health department data, a total have 18 long-term care facilities in the county have had a combined 534 resident cases, 98 employee cases and 83 resident deaths.
Mount Nittany Medical Center reported a single-day high of 53 COVID-19 inpatients on Tuesday and announced new surge-planning measures, including rescheduling about half of elective surgeries that require overnight stays through Jan. 11.
Through the first half of the month, Mount Nittany has admitted about 100 COVID-positive patients in December after having 143 in November and 58 in October.
Tom Charles, Mount Nittany Health executive vice president for system development, told State College Borough Council on Monday night that of the approximately 370 COVID patients hospitalized at Mount Nittany since March, 86% have been over the age of 50 and 51% have been 70 or older. Average inpatient age for the past four months has been between 61 and 69 years old. But Charles stressed that while some have been from nursing homes, most have not.
‘It’s people from the community picking this up in community settings in a variety of different ways and ending up in the hospital,’ Charles said. ‘The message I want to get across is, this is not ‘over there.’ It’s not ‘out there.’ It’s among us. It’s present in the community.
‘It’s not the nursing homes that are driving these hospitalizations. It’s not the prisons. It’s the general community population that has been filling our beds.
