Centre County moved to the medium community level for COVID-19 in the Centers for Disease Control update on Thursday night as new cases and hospitalizations linked to the virus increased over the last week.
The county had spent the previous seven weeks at the low community level.
At the medium level, the CDC recommends that individuals at high risk for severe illness consider wearing a mask indoors in public and taking additional precautions such as staying 6 feet away from others, avoiding crowded and poorly ventilated spaces. Anyone who has symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should also wear a mask, according to the CDC. Masks should be worn on public transportation, as well.
Statewide, 30 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties are at the medium level, four more than last week. Twenty-four are at the low level [-13] and 13 are at the high level [+9], including neighboring Clearfield, Huntingdon and Mifflin counties.
Hospitalizations and cases
Community levels measure new cases and new COVID-19 hospital admissions and percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients over a seven-day period. For a county that has fewer than 200 new cases per 100,000 people in a week, to be at the medium level requires 10-19.9 COVID hospital admissions per 100,000 and/or a seven-day average of less than 10-14.9% of hospital beds occupied by COVID inpatients.
Centre County had a case rate of 189.06 per 100,000 people, up from 142.25 last week, and 11.6 new COVID admissions, up from 6.7, with 4.2% of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 inpatients, up from 3.3%.
Mount Nittany Medical Center had 12 COVID-19 inpatients on Friday, according to its inpatient dashboard, with none in intensive care or on ventilators. The patients range in age from 23 to 84. For the week of July 23-29, Mount Nittany has had an average daily COVID inpatient census of 14.8, twice the number of a week earlier.
The hospital’s daily COVID inpatient census reached a peak of 18 on Tuesday before declining three days in a row.
As of the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s latest weekly update on Wednesday, 1,188 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized statewide, an increase of 58 from a week ago, with 118 in intensive care [-8] and 42 on ventilators [-10].
Centre County added 307 new cases over the last week, a 25% increase from the previous seven days, according to DOH data. The county has had a total of 38,798 COVID-19 cases (34,450 confirmed and 4,348 probable) since March 2020.
The county’s seven-day rolling average for new cases of 44 is up from 33 a week ago.
Pennsylvania registered 22,277 new positives over the last week and has a rolling seven-day average of 3,182.4, up from 2,820.4 the prior week.
The statewide case total since the start of the pandemic is now 3,080,593.
Deaths
DOH recorded one new death attributed to the virus among Centre County residents in the last week, bringing the total to 362.
With 117 new COVID-19 deaths identified by the Pennsylvania death registry in the last week, the statewide total is now 46,164.
Positivity rate
Centre County’s PCR testing positivity rate for the week of July 20-26 was 19.4%, up from 16.1% the previous seven days, according to the DOH early warning monitoring dashboard. The rate was the 24th highest among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
The statewide positivity rate was 17.4%, up from 15.7% the previous seven days.
Vaccinations
As of Wednesday morning, 97,053 people in Centre County are fully vaccinated, an increase of 137 since July 20, and 15,004 are partially covered [+112]. First booster doses have been administered to 53,400county residents [+270] and 11,746 have received a second booster [+370].
Among the county’s entire population, 72% have received at least one dose, 60.9% are fully vaccinated and 53.9% are fully vaccinated with a booster, according to the CDC. Among adult residents, 77.1% have received at least one dose, 65.1% are fully vaccinated and 56% have received a booster.
Statewide, 79.6% of adults and 70% of the total population are fully vaccinated, while at least one booster dose has been administered to 46.8% of adults and 44.2% of the total population have received at least one booster.
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): 9,491 confirmed [+75], 1,343 probable [+3]
16823 (Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap): 6,724 confirmed [+55], 607 probable [+4]
16803 (State College): 3,877 confirmed [+55], 788 probable [+11]
16866 (Philipsburg): 2,300 confirmed [+28], 307 probable
16802 (University Park): 1,926 confirmed [+8], 310 probable [+1]
16870 (Port Matilda): 1,461 confirmed [+12], 194 probable [+4]
16841 (Howard): 1,174 confirmed [+6], 105 probable
16828 (Centre Hall): 894 confirmed [+5], 86 probable
16827 (Boalsburg): 897 confirmed [+17], 113 probable [+2]
16875 (Spring Mills): 713 confirmed [+4], 77 probable [+1]
16844 (Julian): 574 confirmed [+3], 56 probable
16845 (Karthaus): 529 confirmed, 34 probable
16877 (Warrior’s Mark): 319 confirmed [+1], 30 probable
16853 (Milesburg): 303 confirmed [+2], 19 probable
16874 (Snow Shoe): 299 confirmed [+3], 41 probable
16826 (Blanchard): 270 confirmed [+1], 16 probable
16865 (Pennsylvania Furnace): 255 confirmed [+1], 28 probable
16820 (Aaronsburg): 203 confirmed, 28 probable
16829 (Clarence): 194 confirmed [+2], 25 probable
16854 (Millheim): 193 confirmed, 17 probable
16851 (Lemont): 188 confirmed [+8], 28 probable [-1]
16872 (Rebersburg): 179 confirmed [+1], 16 probable
16868 (Pine Grove Mills): 118 confirmed [+1], 12 probable
16859 (Moshannon): 105 confirmed [+2], 6 probable
16832 (Coburn): 93 confirmed, 10 probable
16677 (Sandy Ridge): 92 confirmed [+3], 5 probable
16835 (Fleming): 63 confirmed [+1], 9 probable [+1]
16852 (Madisonburg): 54 confirmed [+1], 5 probable
16856 (Mingoville): 53 confirmed, 10 probable
16882 (Woodward): 44 confirmed, 5 confirmed
16863 (Orviston): 22 confirmed
16804 (State College): 21 confirmed, 1-4 confirmed
16805 (State College): 1-4 confirmed
Cases among Centre County’s bordering counties
Blair: 31,462 [+163] Low Community Level
Clearfield: 20,845 [+159] High Community Level
Mifflin: 13,051 [+87] High Community Level
Union: 12,422 [+58] Medium Community Level
Huntingdon: 12,208 [+81] High Community Level
Clinton: 9,820 [+66] Low Community Level
