Pennsylvania's covid-19 cases continue slight downward trend

Health officials said there were 15,100 new cases of coronavirus over the past two days — 19% less than this time last week.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced 7,213 covid-19 cases on Sunday and another 7,887 cases on Monday. Of the two-day new cases, 90% (13,653) were confirmed through PCR tests; 1,447 were considered probable cases.

The slight decline in cases is a continuation of the numbers that were showing up this past week. On Dec. 13 and 14, the state saw 18,646 cases. Over the past seven days, the state has recorded 63,825 new cases — a nearly 15% decrease from the previous seven days (73,320).

Deaths from covid-19 are also down — by 15.2% — from the previous Sunday-Monday period. On Monday, officials announced there were 156 new covid-related deaths — reporting 99 on Sunday, 57 on Monday. On Dec. 13-14 there were 184 deaths reported. Officials have previously said cases and deaths normally are lower earlier in the week — because of reporting delays.

Of Sunday’s deaths, all are from December except one from November; of Monday’s deaths, 54 are from December, three from November.

As of Sunday, December became the third deadliest month in terms of covid-19 in Pennsylvania. In just 21 days, there have been 2,535 deaths attributed to coronavirus in the state, ranking behind April’s 3,392 deaths and May’s 2,645.

There have been a total of 13,981 covid-related deaths in Pennsylvania since the pandemic began in March.

Health officials reported Monday that the statewide percent-positivity went down to 15.82% from 16.2% last week. However, despite the lessening numbers, officials continue to remain vigilant about the seriousness of the pandemic.

“While our case data shows some improvement, the continued strain covid-19 is placing on the rate of hospitalizations and ventilator use serve as a reminder to us all of our role in protecting our health care system,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said Monday. “We know that hospitalizations and deaths often lag after our case increases. Our hospitals are taxed and many locations have very few ICU beds available.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reports there are 6,090 state residents hospitalized for covid-19, with 1,217 of them in the intensive care unit and 738 on a ventilator.

The state reports there are 16% of the state’s ICU beds available, a slight increase from last week’s 15.6%.

The highest number of new cases on Monday was reported in Allegheny County, with 781. It was by far the largest new batch reported, with the second highest new case count less than half that — Lehigh’s 382. Other top case reports came from York (368), Westmoreland (361), Delaware (340), Northampton (320) and Bucks (303).

Allegheny also saw the most new cases over the Sunday-Monday period as well, posting 1,412. It was followed by Philadelphia (773), York (689), Lehigh (668), Bucks (622), Montgomery (619) and Lancaster (606).

Among the state’s 1,431 nursing and personal care homes, officials report there have been 47,947 resident cases of covid-19, with 8,682 cases among employees.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March, Pennsylvania has amassed 563,589 covid-19 cases, 511,985 of them confirmed through PCR tests. A total of 3,160,075 individuals have tested negative for the virus.