Pennsylvania adds over 3,000 covid cases in past 2 days

Pennsylvania has seen more than 3,000 new cases of the coronavirus in the past two days, according to a report from the state Department of Health.

In the report released Monday, health officials said 1,407 new cases were added Monday and 1,666 cases on Sunday. Among Monday’s cases, 1,310 were confirmed, 97 probable. Among Sunday’s cases, 1,567 were confirmed, 99 probable.

State health officials say daily increases are now comparable with what was recorded in April.

The positivity rate of Pennsylvania’s latest cases is 10% for Sunday, 10.94% for Monday. The state’s seven-day positivity rate has been increasing since late June, when it was around 4%. Since the end of September, the rate has been increasing much faster — going from 6.75% to its current 11.27%.

Officials said there were 12 new deaths reported Sunday, while seven new deaths were reported Monday. All of the deaths happened in October.

More than 100 new cases have been reported in 12 counties, with two of them — Philadelphia and Berks — reporting over 200 each. Only two counties — Cameron and Wayne — reported no new cases in that time.

Philadelphia reported the most new cases over the past two days with 275. The other highest reporting counties in that time include Berks (209), Delaware (179), Allegheny (177), Montgomery (172), Luzerne (143), Lancaster (134) and Westmoreland (125).

There are 2,478 individuals who have a positive viral antigen test and are considered probable cases and 647 individuals who have a positive serology test and either covid-19 symptoms or a high-risk exposure.

According to the state’s covid-19 tracking website, there are 1,138 residents currently hospitalized for the virus, 108 of them on ventilators. State officials report there are 4,982 operational ventilators in the state, with 1,112 (22.3%) currently in use for all illnesses.

Among 1,049 nursing and personal care homes in Pennsylvania, there have been 25,486 resident cases of covid-19, with 5,522 cases among employees. About 12,067 of our total cases are among health care workers, officials said.

There have been a total of 195,695 cases of coronavirus in Pennsylvania since the pandemic began in March. A total of 2,241,430 individuals have tested negative to date.