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Pa. COVID update: Deaths at lowest levels in a year, as Lehigh Valley reclassified as minimally impacted

Morning Call - 9/16/2022

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 17,506 additional coronavirus cases this week, compared with 16,909 last week. The seven-day moving average of newly reported cases was 2,501 cases per day, up 3.5% from a week ago, but down 15% over the last 30 days.

To date, there have been 3.22 million infections statewide.

While case numbers have notched up from last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has moved the Lehigh Valley from having a medium COVID community level to low.

Last week, 9 of the state’s 67 counties were designated as having high community levels. The number has increased to 14 this week, but Philadelphia’s move from high back to medium means the overall number of Pennsylvanians living in a highly-impacted area dropped from 2.78 million last week to 940,163 this week.

More than 8 million people live in the 33 counties now regarded as having medium COVID community levels, while 3.8 million people in the remaining 20 counties have low levels. That includes the 675,000 people living in Lehigh and Northampton counties.

Only those people living in highly-impacted areas are encouraged to take active measures to mitigate their exposure to the virus.

The community level tool takes into account multiple factors, including cases numbers, test positivity and the rate of hospital admissions to determine the virus’s effect on a particular area.

Deaths

There were 54 additional deaths reported over the past week. The seven-day moving average of deaths per day is 7.7, compared with 16.4 a week ago, a decrease of 53% in the last seven days. Pennsylvania has recorded 46,970 deaths since March 2020.

The rate of coronavirus-related deaths in Pennsylvania is at its lowest level since the first week of August last year.

Vaccinations

The latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show:

There are 9.05 million fully vaccinated people in Pennsylvania, accounting for 70.7% of the population. An additional 2.18 million people are in need of their follow-up shot. In total, 24.57 million shots have been put into the arms of 11.23 million people, or 87.7% of the state’s residents.

Included in those statewide numbers are 489,820 Lehigh Valley residents who are fully vaccinated, accounting for 72.6% of the local population. In total, 571,851 locals have received 1,274,479 shots in the arm, accounting for 84.8% of the Valley’s population.

An average of 3,272 vaccinations are being administered to Pennsylvania residents each day, according to CDC data. Of those, 1,017 are first doses. The number of total vaccinations per day is down 66.2% over the last 30 days. The number of first doses being given per day is down 58.3% over the last 30 days.

Hospitalizations

There were 1,171 people hospitalized according to the latest report, with 133 in intensive care, and 56 on ventilators. Statewide hospitalizations have remained steady over the last week, and are down 10% in the last 30 days.

Hospitals in the Lehigh Valley reported 38 COVID-19 patients, including 9 in intensive care, and three on ventilators. Local hospitalizations have increased 5.2% over the last week, but are down 23% in the last 30 days.

Lehigh Valley

Cases: 1,016 additional case reports, with 534 in Lehigh County, 482 in Northampton County. That brings the total to 193,242.

Deaths: No new deaths in the past week, leaving the total at 2,456 (1,297 in Lehigh, and 1,159 in Northampton).

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