Pennsylvania adds 521 new coronavirus cases, no new deaths

Pennsylvania saw more than 13% fewer cases of covid-19 in August than in July.

On Monday, the state’s Department of Health announced 521 new covid-19 cases in Pennsylvania, bringing August’s total to 21,977 cases. In July, the state had 25,442 cases.

The state processed fewer unique tests in August (441,348), than in July (452,685), but the positivity rate dropped from 5.62% in July to 4.98% this past month.

On Monday, Philadelphia County added the most cases with 83. The next highest new case counts were in Delaware (40), York (40), Montgomery (39), Allegheny (37) and Lancaster (34).

The state said, as of Saturday, it’s now using the updated standardized case definition for covid-19 from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, which updates what constitutes probable cases and adds a “suspect case” classification.

According to the state release, “Viral antigen tests, which identify people who are likely currently infected, will now be considered a probable case, even if the individual has no symptoms or exposure history. Persons with a positive antibody (serology) test, moving forward, will no longer be considered a probable case. However, cases previously counted as probable cases, using the prior national case definition, will remain counted as probable cases.”

The definition for confirmed cases using a positive PCR test has not changed.

On Monday, the state reported 10 cases of patients with a positive viral antigen test (considered as probable cases) and 646 patients with a positive serology test and either covid-19 symptoms or a high-risk exposure.

The state announced no new covid-19 related deaths Monday, bringing its August total to 484, which was just over 10% less than July’s 540 deaths. In all, the state has had 7,673 coronavirus related deaths.

The state is reporting there have been 21,034 cases of covid-19 in the state’s 929 nursing and personal care homes, with 4,498 cases among employees. Out of the state’s total deaths, 5,189 were among residents of those facilities.

According to the state’s covid-19 tracking website, there are 499 state residents currently hospitalized for the virus, with 72 of them on ventilators. The state reports that most of the patients hospitalized are between age 25 and 49.

To date, Pennsylvania has had 134,025 positive cases of coronavirus.