Pennsylvania's covid surge eases a bit as Christmas arrives

When a surge of new cases hit Pennsylvania in early December, it ratcheted up the state’s average daily case count to over 10,000. Over the past week, that surge seems to have eased slightly.

The trend continued on the day before Christmas.

With 9,230 new covid-19 cases announced by the Pennsylvania Department of Health on Thursday, the state’s average count over the last seven days has dropped to 8,722 — 21% less than at its record high of 10,579 on Dec. 16.

Among the new cases, 7,136 are confirmed through PCR tests, while 2,094 of them are listed as probable. Health officials define a probable case as one in which a patient has a positive viral antigen test or covid symptoms with a “high-risk exposure” to someone who has been confirmed to have coronavirus.

The state announced 276 more covid-related deaths Thursday — all of which were from December. With 3,268 deaths this month, December is only 124 shy of breaking April’s record mark of 3,392. To date, there have been 14,718 Pennsylvanians who have died from covid-related illness.

Out of the state’s total deaths, 8,412 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities.

The county posting the highest number of new cases was again Allegheny, with 912 additions Thursday. It was followed by Philadelphia (739), Montgomery (488), Lancaster (413), Bucks (397), Lehigh (394) and Westmoreland (368).

Through Dec. 24, Philadelphia has seen the highest number of new cases (21,756), although Allegheny is closing in fast with 20,643. With 8,314 cases, Westmoreland County ranks 7th in the state in December.

Health officials continue to make it clear that mask-wearing is required in all businesses in Pennsylvania and whenever leaving home.

In the state’s 1,443 nursing and personal care homes, there have been 49,840 resident cases and 9,070 cases among employees.

Health officials report that 109 hospitals have received 127,755 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine and that through Dec. 24, 57,602 doses have been administered.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reports there are 6,077 state residents hospitalized for covid-19, with 1,219 of them in the intensive care unit and 743 on a ventilator.

Over the past five days, the average number of patients hospitalized in the state was 6,107, a drop of almost 2% from the previous five days (6,217).

Since the pandemic began in March, 590,386 Pennsylvanians have been recorded as covid-19 cases, while 3,193,528 have tested negative for the virus.