Westmoreland County reaches 20K covid-19 case mark

Westmoreland County reached a grim milestone on Monday, with the announcement it has now surpassed 20,000 cases of the coronavirus.

With 359 more covid-19 cases over the past two days, health officials with the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported Westmoreland County has now amassed a total of 20,165 cases in the 10 months of the pandemic.

The report broke it down as 127 being reported Sunday, with 232 in Monday’s tally. The total number of new cases reported is nearly a 40% jump from a week ago.

Of the new batch of cases, 209 were confirmed through 541 PCR tests, while 332 tested negative.

The state also reported another six Westmoreland County resident deaths were attributed to covid — four on Sunday, two on Monday. The number is one less than last week’s two-day report.

To date, 435 county residents have died of covid.

Over the past two days, Westmoreland County registered the fourth highest number of additional cases in Pennsylvania. The only counties reporting more were Allegheny (853), Montgomery County (451) and Philadelphia (385).

According to the state’s covid-19 dashboard, there are 173 Westmoreland County residents currently hospitalized for the virus, with 17 of them in the intensive care unit and 12 on respirators. The average number of covid patients in county hospitals has dropped 5½% since a week ago.

As of Jan. 4, officials report that 4,071 doses of the covid-19 vaccine — including both Pfizer and Moderna — has been administered in Westmoreland County.

Since the pandemic began, there have been a total of 15,045 covid-19 cases confirmed through PCR tests in Westmoreland County, with 74,198 individuals testing negative for the virus.