After one week at medium, Centre County returned to the low community level for COVID-19 this week, according to the Centers for Disease Control’s update on Thursday night.
With a decline in new cases and hospital admissions linked to the virus, the county moved back to low for the 17th time in the last 18 weeks.
At the low level, the CDC recommends wearing a mask if symptomatic, if an individual has tested positive for COVID-19 or has been exposed to someone who has, and when on public transportation, but does not recommend universal indoor masking in public places.
Statewide, Centre County is one of 36 counties at the low level, 12 more than last week as new cases and hospitalizations fell across Pennsylvania. Thirty are at medium [-12] and just one, Pike, is at high.
HOSPITALIZATIONS AND CASES
For a county to be at the low level, it has fewer than 200 new cases per 100,000 people over a seven-day period, with fewer than 10 COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people and less than 10% of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients over the same period.
Centre County had a case rate of 65.89 per 100,000 people (down from 82.52 last week) and 7 new COVID admissions per 100,000 (down from 10.9), with 6.2% of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 inpatients (up from 5.5%).
Mount Nittany Medical Center had 10 COVID-19 inpatients as of the hospital’s inpatient dashboard update on Friday. None are intensive care or on ventilators. The patients range in age from 52 to 96. For the week of Jan. 14-20, Mount Nittany had an average daily COVID inpatient census of 12.7 up from 10.1 last week.
The county added 107 reported new cases in the last week, 27 fewer than the previous seven days, according to Pennsylvania Department of Health data. The seven-day rolling average for new cases was 15.3, down from 19.1.
A total of 43,307 COVID-19 cases (38,649 confirmed and 4,658 probable) have been reported among Centre County residents since March 2020.
STATEWIDE
Pennsylvania registered 11,045 reported new positives over the last week, 4,185 fewer than the previous week’s new cases. The rolling seven-day average of 1,578 new cases is down from 2,176 the prior week.
The commonwealth’s case total since the start of the pandemic is now 3,458,136.
According to the DOH data, 1,347 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized statewide as of Wednesday, 220 fewer than a week earlier, with 191 in intensive care [-12] and 84 on ventilators [+7].
DEATHS
DOH recorded one new death attributed to the virus among Centre County residents in the last week, bringing the total to 386.
With 134 new COVID-19 deaths identified by the Pennsylvania death registry in the last week, the statewide total is now 49,397.
POSITIVITY RATE
Centre County’s PCR testing positivity rate for the week of Jan. 11-17 was 12%, up from 11.2% the previous seven days, according to the DOH early warning monitoring dashboard. The rate was 35th lowest among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
The statewide positivity rate was 12.8%, down from 14.4% the prior week.
VACCINATIONS
As of Wednesday morning, 102,474 people in Centre County have completed the primary vaccination series, an increase of 95 since Jan. 11, and 13,129 are partially covered [-10]. Bivalent booster doses have been administered to 29,254 county residents [+454].
Among the county’s entire population, 75% have received at least one dose and 63.7% have completed the primary vaccine series, while 19.6% of eligible residents (age 5 and older) have received the bivalent booster, according to the CDC. Among adult residents, 79.8% have received at least one dose, 67.5% have completed the primary series and 20.8% have received the bivalent booster booster.
Statewide, 82.5% of adults and 73.2% of the total population have completed the primary series, while the bivalent booster has been administered to 20.5% of adults and 18.1% of all residents age 5 and older.
Vaccination appointments are available through pharmacies and providers listed at vaccines.gov.
CENTRE COUNTY’S CASES BY ZIP CODE
*Note: Changes are in brackets. 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): 10,410 confirmed [+27], 1,413 probable [+4]
16823 (Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap): 7,615 confirmed [+20], 657 probable [-1]
16803 (State College): 4,472 confirmed [+13], 867 probable
16866 (Philipsburg): 2,768 confirmed [+12], 355 probable [+7]
16802 (University Park): 2,091 confirmed [+2], 314 probable
16870 (Port Matilda): 1,689 confirmed [+4], 221 probable [+3]
16841 (Howard): 1,329 confirmed [+4], 116 probable
16827 (Boalsburg): 1,026 confirmed [+5], 129 probable
16828 (Centre Hall): 1,011 confirmed [+5], 101 probable
16875 (Spring Mills): 806 confirmed, 85 probable
16844 (Julian): 655 confirmed [+2], 57 probable [-1]
16845 (Karthaus): 566 confirmed [+1], 32 probable
16853 (Milesburg): 358 confirmed [+2], 20 probable
16874 (Snow Shoe): 346 confirmed [+1], 40 probable
16877 (Warrior’s Mark): 345 confirmed [+1], 32 probable
16826 (Blanchard): 300 confirmed, 18 probable
16865 (Pennsylvania Furnace): 290 confirmed [+1], 30 probable
16851 (Lemont): 225 confirmed [+2], 34 probable
16820 (Aaronsburg): 223 confirmed, 28 probable
16829 (Clarence): 220 confirmed [+2], 25 probable
16854 (Millheim): 208 confirmed, 18 probable
16872 (Rebersburg): 195 confirmed, 17 probable
16868 (Pine Grove Mills): 133 confirmed [+2], 13 probable
16859 (Moshannon): 127 confirmed, 6 probable
16677 (Sandy Ridge): 112 confirmed, 6 probable
16832 (Coburn): 107 confirmed, 11 probable
16835 (Fleming): 73 confirmed, 7 probable
16852 (Madisonburg): 61 confirmed, 5 probable
16856 (Mingoville): 58 confirmed, 12 probable
16882 (Woodward): 49 confirmed, 5 confirmed
16804 (State College): 24 confirmed, 1-4 confirmed
16863 (Orviston): 23 confirmed
16805 (State College): 1-4 confirmed
CASES AMONG CENTRE COUNTY’S BORDERING COUNTIES
Blair: 34,633 [+90] Low Community Level
Clearfield: 23,894 [+81] Low Community Level
Mifflin: 14,886 [+50] Low Community Level
Huntingdon: 13,664 [+45] Low Community Level
Union: 13,384 [+19] Medium Community Level
Clinton: 10,977 [+31] Low Community Level
