Centre County registered one new COVID-19 death and 134 more cases of the virus on Saturday, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
The death is the county’s 321st attributed to COVID-19 and 32nd reported this month.
On Friday, DOH’s case data was updated late and was incomplete. The county had 268 new cases on Friday, according to Saturday’s update.
In total, Centre County has had 33,162 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic (29,544 confirmed and 3,618 probable). The county’s seven-day moving average for new cases per day is 178, down from 224 a week ago and 285 two weeks ago.
Statewide, Pennsylvania reported 27,113 new cases over the past two days, bringing the commonwealth’s total to 2,649,247. The statewide seven-day average for new cases is 12,726, down from 19,244 a week ago and 26,414 two weeks ago.
With 154 new COVID-19 deaths identified by the Pennsylvania death registry on Saturday, the statewide total is now 40,548.
Hospitalizations
According to the DOH hospital preparedness dashboard, 48 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized in Centre County, one more than on Friday, with four in intensive care [-1] and four on ventilators.
Mount Nittany Medical Center reported on Friday that it has had an average daily census of 45 COVID-19 inpatients in January, its third-highest month since the start of the pandemic but down from the average of 57 in December.
Hospitalizations at Mount Nittany have ticked up in the last week, with an average of about 49 COVID inpatients per day.
“We continue to care for a high number of COVID positive patients at the medical center, and we are concerned that admissions are increasing again,” Tiffany Cabibbo, chief nursing officer, said in a statement. “Community spread is extremely high, and on behalf of the healthcare workers at Mount Nittany Health, I cannot stress enough the importance of protecting yourself and others from the virus.”
Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 hospitalizations declined for the 13th consecutive day. According to DOH, 5,084 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized statewide, 216 fewer than on Friday, with 824 patients in intensive care [-66] and 533 on ventilators [-16].
The commonwealth had 5,985 average daily COVID-19-specific hospitalizations for the week of Jan. 21-27, down from 7,128 a week earlier, according to the updated DOH early warning monitoring dashboard.
Positivity rate
Centre County’s PCR testing positivity rate for the week of Jan. 21-27 was 26%, down from 28.2% the previous seven days and marking a decline for the third straight week, according to the monitoring dashboard. The rate was 17th lowest among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
The county had 1,044 new cases for that seven-day period, 362 fewer than the prior week.
The statewide positivity rate was 25.4%, down from 31%, the previous seven days. The commonwealth had 71,248 new positives between Jan. 21-27, 34,55 fewer than the prior week.
Transmission level
All 67 counties in Pennsylvania are at the highest level for community transmission of COVID-19 on the Centers for Disease Control scale, according to the latest county-level data update.
Transmission levels are based on positivity rate and cases per 100,000 people for the previous seven days. At the substantial and high levels, CDC guidance recommends all people, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in public indoor settings.
Cases Among Children
For the 2021-2022 school year, DOH is providing weekly updated case counts for two age groups: 0-4 capturing preschool and daycare age children and 5-18 capturing kindergarten through high school age children. The case counts do not necessarily represent exposure in school or daycare settings and the location of exposure cannot be determined in most cases.
For the week of Jan. 19-25, there were 77 new cases among children in the 0-4 age group and 251 in the 5-18 age group in Centre County. About 24% of all cases in Centre County that week were among children 0-18.
Since Aug. 16, there have been 2,869 cases among individuals between the ages of 0 and 18 in Centre County — 534 between the ages of 0-4 and 2,335 between the ages of 5 and 18 — representing about 19% of all cases during that time.
Nursing and Personal Care Home Cases
Long-term care facilities in Centre County reported no new COVID-19 cases among residents and employees on Friday and Saturday. A total of 20 nursing and personal care homes in the county have had a combined 743 resident cases, 714 employee cases and 180 resident deaths.
Prison cases
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Benner state prison has 11 active COVID-19 cases among inmates, three more than on Friday, and 23 among staff [+5].
Rockview state prison has 46 active inmate cases [-8] and 46 among staff [+6].
Both facilities are in Benner Township.
At Benner, 1,473 inmates are fully vaccinated, 13 are partially vaccinated and 192 are not vaccinated. Among staff, 308 are fully vaccinated and 320 are not vaccinated.
Rockview has 1,714 inmates who are fully vaccinated and 59 who are not vaccinated. Among staff, 342 are fully vaccinated and 375 are not vaccinated.
Vaccinations
As of Saturday morning, 92,930 people in Centre County are fully vaccinated, an increase of 140 since Friday, and 14,026 are partially covered [+23]. Booster doses have been administered to 46,898 county residents [+207].
Among the county’s entire population, 68.4% have received at least one dose, 58.2% are fully vaccinated and 49.3% are fully vaccinated with a booster, according to the CDC. Among adult residents, 73.7% have received at least one dose, 62.5% are fully vaccinated and 51.8% have received a booster.
Statewide, 75.5% of adults and 65.6% of the total population are fully vaccinated.
Vaccination appointments are available through Centre Volunteers in Medicine, Mount Nittany Health and through other pharmacies and providers listed at vaccines.gov.
All individuals age 12 and older are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot.
Centre County’s cases by zip code:
*Note: Because case data was not reported on Friday, increases in brackets are for two days. Specific numbers for zip codes with 1-4 cases are redacted by the health department. Cases are not always immediately assigned zip codes.
16801 (State College): 8,298 confirmed [+39], 1,070 probable [+39]
16823 (Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap): 5,810 confirmed [+74], 539 probable [+8]
16803 (State College): 3,034 confirmed [+31], 599 probable [+26]
16866 (Philipsburg): 1,887 confirmed [+27], 284 probable [+2]
16802 (University Park): 1,799 confirmed [+1], 246 probable [+23]
16870 (Port Matilda): 1,179 confirmed [+16], 156 probable [+1]
16841 (Howard): 1,006 confirmed [+15], 95 probable [+1]
16828 (Centre Hall): 729 confirmed [+21], 77 probable [-1]
16827 (Boalsburg): 691 confirmed [+8], 91 probable
16875 (Spring Mills): 624 confirmed [+7], 69 probable
16844 (Julian): 515 confirmed [+3], 50 probable
16845 (Karthaus): 491 confirmed [+4], 34 probable
16853 (Milesburg): 272 confirmed [+3], 19 probable
16877 (Warrior’s Mark): 270 confirmed [+5], 30 probable
16874 (Snow Shoe): 259 confirmed [+5], 36 probable [-2]
16826 (Blanchard): 230 confirmed [+2], 15 probable
16865 (Pennsylvania Furnace): 212 confirmed, 20 probable [+2]
16829 (Clarence): 172 confirmed [+3], 25 probable
16820 (Aaronsburg): 169 confirmed [+1], 24 probable
16854 (Millheim): 169 confirmed [+1], 15 probable
16872 (Rebersburg): 148 confirmed, 16 probable
16851 (Lemont): 145 confirmed [+4], 24 probable
16859 (Moshannon): 94 confirmed, 6 probable
16868 (Pine Grove Mills): 88 confirmed [+2], 10 probable
16832 (Coburn): 85 confirmed [+1], 8 probable
16677 (Sandy Ridge): 71 confirmed [+3], 6 probable
16835 (Fleming): 57 confirmed [+1], 8 probable
16856 (Mingoville): 49 confirmed [+2], 10 probable
16852 (Madisonburg): 42 confirmed, 5 probable
16882 (Woodward): 38 confirmed [+1], 1-4 confirmed
16804 (State College): 19 confirmed, 1-4 confirmed
16863 (Orviston): 17 confirmed [-1]
16805 (State College): 1-4 confirmed
Cases among Centre County’s bordering counties [two-day increases]
Blair: 27,663 [+354]
Clearfield: 17,861 [+225]
Mifflin: 11,380 [+238]
Union: 10,982 [+153]
Huntingdon: 10,703 [+163]
Clinton: 8,461 [+114]
