Pennsylvania adds 806 new covid cases, 2 new deaths

Pennsylvania added 806 new cases of coronavirus to its tally Friday, according to the state’s Department of Health.

It marks the sixth day in a row new cases have been under 1,000. In the past week, there have been 5,520 cases, a nearly 5% decline from the previous seven days (Sept. 12-18).

The health department said there were two new deaths attributed to covid-19. It’s the lowest amount of new deaths since Sept. 14, when no deaths were added.

In all, 8,081 covid-related deaths have been found in Pennsylvania. Of those deaths, 5,419 (67%) have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities.

To date, the highest percentage of cases in Pennsylvania have been found among residents ages 25-49 (36%). The next highest groups are those ages 50-64 and ages 65 and older — both with 22% of the cases.

Among nursing and personal care homes, there have been 22,591 resident cases of covid-19, with 4,961 cases among employees.

In the past seven days, Philadelphia County added the most cases with 635, followed by Centre (601), Allegheny (417), York (361), Lancaster (292), Chester (264) and Bucks (255).

Other Western Pennsylvania counties’ week-long totals: Indiana (87), Butler (58), Washington (52), Beaver (52), Mercer (36), Fayette (25), Armstrong (24), Greene (17), Lawrence (15), Somerset (11), Clarion (7), Venango (4) and Forest (1). Four counties reported no new cases in the past week.

According to the state’s covid-19 tracking website, there are currently 422 state residents hospitalized for the virus, with 53 of them on a ventilator. According to the state, there are a total of 4,969 ventilators in Pennsylvania, with 1,072 (21.6%) currently in use for all illnesses.

There have been 154,203 cases of covid-19 in Pennsylvania since the pandemic began in March. To date, 1,816,397 Pennsylvanians have tested negative for the virus.