Centre County Moves Back to Medium COVID-19 Community Level

Centre County moved up to the Centers for Disease Control’s medium community level for COVID-19 this week as reported new cases declined but hospitalizations linked to the virus increased, according to the CDC’s latest update on Thursday night.

It’s just the second time in 10 weeks the county has been above the low community level.

At the medium level, the CDC recommends that individuals at high risk for severe illness consider wearing a mask indoors in public and taking additional precautions such as staying 6 feet away from others, avoiding crowded and poorly ventilated spaces. Anyone who has symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should also wear a mask, according to the CDC. Masks should be worn on public transportation, as well.

Statewide, 40 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties are at the medium level, eight more than last week. Seventeen are at the low level [-4] and 10 are at the high level [-4] including neighboring Clearfield and Mifflin counties.

Hospitalizations and cases

Community levels measure new cases and new COVID-19 hospital admissions and percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients over a seven-day period. For a county that has fewer than 200 new cases per 100,000 people in a week, to be at the medium level requires 10-19.9 COVID hospital admissions per 100,000 and/or a seven-day average of less than 10-14.9% of hospital beds occupied by COVID inpatients.

Centre County had a case rate of 138.56 per 100,000 people, down from 166.27 last week, and 12.3 new COVID admissions per 100,000, up from six, with 6.5% of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 inpatients, up from 5.2%.

Mount Nittany Medical Center had 14 COVID-19 inpatients on Friday, according to its inpatient dashboard, with none in intensive care or on ventilators. The patients range in age from 51 to 83. For the week of July 30-Aug. 5, Mount Nittany has had an average daily COVID inpatient census of 15.4, up from 11.3 a week earlier. The hospital had a high of 20 COVID-19 inpatients on Saturday.

As of the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s latest weekly update on Wednesday, 1,301 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized statewide, 111 more than a week ago, with 131 in intensive care [-12] and 54 on ventilators [+7].

Centre County added 225 reported new cases over the last week, a 17% decrease from the previous seven days, according to DOH data. The county has had a total of 39,293 COVID-19 cases (34,921 confirmed and 4,372 probable) since March 2020.

The county’s seven-day rolling average for new cases of 32 is down from 38 a week ago.

Pennsylvania registered 20,626 new positives over the last week, a 17% decrease from a week ago. The rolling seven-day average of 2,946.5 is down from 3,535.4 the prior week.

The statewide case total since the start of the pandemic is now 3,125.967.

Deaths

DOH recorded no new deaths attributed to the virus among Centre County residents in the last week, keeping the total at 362.

With 113 new COVID-19 deaths identified by the Pennsylvania death registry in the last week, the statewide total is now 46,374.

Positivity rate

Centre County’s PCR testing positivity rate for the week of Aug. 3-9 was 17.1%, down from 17.5% the previous seven days, according to the DOH early warning monitoring dashboard. The rate was the 27th lowest among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.

The statewide positivity rate was 17.2%, down slightly from 17.3% the previous seven days.

Vaccinations

As of Wednesday morning, 97,292 people in Centre County are fully vaccinated, an increase of 116 since Aug. 3, and 15,147 are partially covered [+61]. First booster doses have been administered to 53,754 county residents [+149] and 12,429 have received a second booster [+272].

Among the county’s entire population, 72.3 % have received at least one dose, 61.1% are fully vaccinated and 54.1% are fully vaccinated with a booster, according to the CDC. Among adult residents, 77.3% have received at least one dose, 65.2% are fully vaccinated and 56.1% have received a booster.

Statewide, 79.8% of adults and 70.2% of the total population are fully vaccinated, while at least one booster dose has been administered to 46.9% of adults and 44.4% 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): 9,588 confirmed [+46], 1,352 probable [-1]

16823 (Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap): 6,862 confirmed [+66], 607 probable [-1]

16803 (State College): 3,933 confirmed [+32], 800 probable [+6]

16866 (Philipsburg): 2,350 confirmed [+27], 312 probable [+4]

16802 (University Park): 1,932 confirmed [+2], 310 probable

16870 (Port Matilda): 1,491 confirmed [+14], 193 probable

16841 (Howard): 1,193 confirmed [+10], 106 probable

16828 (Centre Hall): 912 confirmed [+7], 87 probable

16827 (Boalsburg): 913 confirmed [+6], 114 probable

16875 (Spring Mills): 721 confirmed [+5], 81 probable [+1]

16844 (Julian): 577 confirmed [+2], 56 probable

16845 (Karthaus): 530 confirmed, 34 probable

16877 (Warrior’s Mark): 322 confirmed [+1], 30 probable

16853 (Milesburg): 305 confirmed [+1], 19 probable

16874 (Snow Shoe): 303 confirmed [+1], 40 probable

16826 (Blanchard): 271 confirmed, 16 probable

16865 (Pennsylvania Furnace): 259 confirmed [+1], 28 probable

16820 (Aaronsburg): 204 confirmed, 28 probable

16854 (Millheim): 198 confirmed [+2], 17 probable

16829 (Clarence): 195 confirmed, 25 probable

16851 (Lemont): 189 confirmed, 28 probable

16872 (Rebersburg): 182 confirmed [+3], 17 probable

16868 (Pine Grove Mills): 119 confirmed, 13 probable

16859 (Moshannon): 105 confirmed, 6 probable

16677 (Sandy Ridge): 95 confirmed [-1], 5 probable

16832 (Coburn): 94 confirmed [+1], 10 probable

16835 (Fleming): 66 confirmed, 8 probable

16852 (Madisonburg): 54 confirmed, 5 probable

16856 (Mingoville): 53 confirmed, 10 probable

16882 (Woodward): 44 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 

Blair: 31,751 [+144] Low Community Level

Clearfield: 21,192 [+189] High Community Level

Mifflin: 13,259 [+108] High Community Level

Union: 12,524 [+46] Medium Community Level

Huntingdon: 12,373 [+85] Medium Community Level

Clinton: 9,921 [+54] Medium Community Level