Pennsylvania reports 7,800 more covid cases, 122 deaths over 2 days

The Pennsylvania Department of Health’s latest report, released Monday, shows another 7,805 more cases of covid-19 over the past two days.

While still a high number of cases, the latest figures were nearly 10% less than were reported a week ago (8,663). Officials said the case counts are atypically low as a result of technical maintenance to the state’s data server on Sunday.

Health officials added 4,579 cases Sunday and another 3,226 cases Monday. Of the latest cases reported, 6,383 have been confirmed through PCR tests, with 11,678 testing negative.

In a separate report, health officials said the statewide percent-positivity went down to 15.0% from 15.1% the week prior. They also report 8,476 fewer new cases across the state over the past week compared to the previous week.

“Although the decrease in our statewide positivity rate is small, it is still encouraging,” Gov. Wolf said in the release. “The sacrifices Pennsylvanians took over the holidays to celebrate differently than usual and with people inside your household are signs of our continued resilience and drive to fight against covid-19. We must continue these best practices to stay safe and keep our friends, family and loved ones safe while covid-19 remains a threat in our communities.”

The state said another 122 covid-related deaths were reported in the Sunday-Monday period, nearly 40% less than the number reported a week ago (203). Officials said the technical issues that affected case counts did not impact the death reporting system because the death data comes from a different server.

All but one of the new deaths reported occurred in December; one of the deaths happened in January. So far, December’s death covid toll stands at 4,877 — by far the worst month of the pandemic.

In the state’s nursing and personal care homes, there have been 54,465 resident cases of covid, and 9,827 cases among employees. Officials say about 19,437 of the state’s total cases have been recorded among health care workers.

Through Jan. 3, the state has administered 135,044 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to residents.

According to the state’s covid-19 dashboard, there are 5,630 Pennsylvanians currently hospitalized for the virus, with 1,182 of them in the intensive care unit and 678 on respirators. The average number of covid patients in hospitals across the state has dropped 6% since a week ago.

Among the counties with the highest report of additional cases over the past two days, Allegheny County was the state’s highest, with 852 cases. Following that were Montgomery (451), Philadelphia (385), Westmoreland (359), Bucks (338) and Lancaster (322).

Other Western Pennsylvania counties of note also saw additional cases: Butler (206), Washington (184), Fayette (131), Beaver (106), Lawrence (70), Greene (52), Armstrong (51) and Indiana (35).

From the beginning of the pandemic 10 months ago, Pennsylvania has reported a total of 665,097 cases of coronavirus. Of those, 595,596 have been confirmed through a PCR test, with 3,301,186 testing negative.