Centre County stayed at the low community level for COVID-19 for the second consecutive week, according to the Centers for Disease Control’s latest update on Thursday night.
New cases in the county were nearly even with a week ago, while hospitalizations linked to the virus saw a small uptick. Statewide, new cases and hospitalizations continued to decline.
Two Pennsylvania counties — Cameron and Erie — are at the high level after none were last week. Centre is among 47 counties at the low level, 11 more than last week, while 18 are at medium [-13].
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.
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 76.36 per 100,000 people (down from 76.98 last week) and 6.7 new COVID admissions per 100,000 (up from 4.9), with 5% of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 inpatients (up from 3.6%).
Mount Nittany Medical Center had nine COVID-19 inpatients as of the hospital’s inpatient dashboard update on Friday. One is in intensive care and none are on ventilators. The patients range in age from 57 to 92. For the week of March 4-10, Mount Nittany had an average daily COVID inpatient census of 9.1, up from 8.4 last week.
The county added 124 reported new cases in the last week, one fewer than the previous seven days, according to Pennsylvania Department of Health data. The seven-day rolling average for new cases was 17.7, down from 17.8.
A total of 44,220 COVID-19 cases (39,477 confirmed and 4,743 probable) have been reported among Centre County residents since March 2020.
STATEWIDE
Pennsylvania registered 7,041 reported new positives over the last week, 1,635 fewer than the previous week’s new cases. The rolling seven-day average of 1,005 new cases is down from 1,239 the prior week.
The commonwealth’s case total since the start of the pandemic is now 3,527,854.
According to the DOH data, 872 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized statewide as of Wednesday, 163 fewer than a week earlier, with 98 in intensive care [-38] and 39 on ventilators [-8].
DEATHS
DOH recorded one new death attributed to the virus among Centre County residents in the last week, bringing the total to 397.
With 117 new COVID-19 deaths identified by the Pennsylvania death registry in the last week, the statewide total is now 50,398.
POSITIVITY RATE
Centre County’s PCR testing positivity rate for the week of March 1-7 was 12.3% down from 13.1%, the previous seven days, according to the DOH early warning monitoring dashboard. The rate was tied for 11th highest among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
The statewide positivity rate was 8.6%, down from 10.2% the prior week.
VACCINATIONS
As of Wednesday morning, 102,952 people in Centre County have completed the primary vaccination series, an increase of 59 since March 1, and 13,055 are partially covered [no change]. Bivalent booster doses have been administered to 30,673 county residents [+201].
Among the county’s entire population, 75.3% have received at least one dose and 63.9% have completed the primary vaccine series, while 20.5% of eligible residents (age 5 and older) have received the bivalent booster, according to the CDC. Among adult residents, 80.1% have received at least one dose, 67.7% have completed the primary series and 21.8% have received the bivalent booster booster.
Statewide, 82.8% of adults and 73.5% of the total population have completed the primary series, while the bivalent booster has been administered to 21.7% of adults and 19.2% 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): 10,613 confirmed [+25], 1,434 probable [+5]
16823 (Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap): 7,837 confirmed [+40], 668 probable
16803 (State College): 4,575 confirmed [+14], 882 probable [+1]
16866 (Philipsburg): 2,849 confirmed [+16], 357 probable [+2]
16802 (University Park): 2,126 confirmed [+1], 317 probable
16870 (Port Matilda): 1,713 confirmed [+4], 229 probable
16841 (Howard): 1,344 confirmed [+2], 116 probable
16827 (Boalsburg): 1,051 confirmed [+2], 138 probable
16828 (Centre Hall): 1,038 confirmed [+3], 102 probable
16875 (Spring Mills): 823 confirmed [+2], 90 probable [+1]
16844 (Julian): 667 confirmed [+1], 57 probable
16845 (Karthaus): 570 confirmed, 33 probable
16853 (Milesburg): 371 confirmed [+4], 20 probable
16874 (Snow Shoe): 356 confirmed, 41 probable
16877 (Warrior’s Mark): 354 confirmed [+2], 35 probable
16826 (Blanchard): 306 confirmed, 18 probable
16865 (Pennsylvania Furnace): 294 confirmed [+1], 30 probable
16851 (Lemont): 230 confirmed, 34 probable
16829 (Clarence): 226 confirmed, 26 probable
16820 (Aaronsburg): 224 confirmed, 28 probable
16854 (Millheim): 212 confirmed, 20 probable [+1]
16872 (Rebersburg): 199 confirmed, 17 probable
16868 (Pine Grove Mills): 133 confirmed, 15 probable
16859 (Moshannon): 130 confirmed, 6 probable
16677 (Sandy Ridge): 115 confirmed, 6 probable
16832 (Coburn): 109 confirmed, 12 probable
16835 (Fleming): 73 confirmed, 7 probable
16852 (Madisonburg): 64 confirmed [+1], 6 probable [+1]
16856 (Mingoville): 58 confirmed, 12 probable
16882 (Woodward): 49 confirmed, 5 confirmed
16863 (Orviston): 25 confirmed [+2]
16804 (State College): 24 confirmed, 1-4 confirmed
16805 (State College): 1-4 confirmed
CASES AMONG CENTRE COUNTY’S BORDERING COUNTIES
Blair: 35,199 [+71] Low Community Level
Clearfield: 24,425 [+60] Low Community Level
Mifflin: 15,166 [+31] Low Community Level
Huntingdon: 13,887 [+26] Low Community Level
Union: 13,563 [+22] Medium Community Level
Clinton: 11,183 [+33] Medium Community Level
