Feb. 16 update: Centre County sees drop in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, positivity
COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continued to fall in Centre County on Tuesday.
The county reported just 14 new cases, the lowest one-day total since Nov. 8. Overall, there have been 12,231 cases (11,411 confirmed and 910 probable) along with 59,565 negative tests. The state Department of Health lists 206 deaths in the county.
Mount Nittany Medical Center is treating 12 COVID-19 patients between the ages of 54 and 88, a spokesperson said Tuesday. That’s 10 fewer patients than in Friday’s update.
The state’s early warning monitoring system dashboard shows the county’s positivity rate fell by almost 4 percentage points to 9.2% during the week of Feb. 5-Thursday. The week before, the county’s rate was 13%.
Centre County continues to have one of the highest case rates in the state. The county’s rate of 254.9 cases per 100,000 residents is the fourth highest in Pennsylvania — though it did decline from the previous week when the county had the third highest rate at 338.7.
The statewide positivity rate dropped to 8% from 8.6% the previous week.
“We are reporting another week of lowered statewide positivity, which is an encouraging sign of as we continue our COVID-19 response,” Gov. Tom Wolf said in a statement. “Across the commonwealth, we are getting vaccine into arms to ensure our residents are protected against COVID-19 exposure, but there is still community spread ongoing in our communities, so we cannot get inpatient. We need to stay the course to best fight this virus.”
Centre County is among 51 counties that are considered by the state to be in the highest level — substantial — level of community transmission. One county (Cameron) is in the low level and 15 are in the moderate level. Counties in the substantial level of transmission have an incidence rate at or above 100 or a positivity rate at or above 10%.
Pennsylvania reported 2,377 new COVID-19 cases to bring the total to 899,237. There have been 3.78 million negative tests, and 88% of people have recovered statewide.
The state added seven deaths to bring the total to 23,126.
Pennsylvania has administered 1.7 million doses of the vaccine to 1.28 million people (excluding those in Philadelphia and in federal facilities such as veterans hospitals or prisons). In Centre County, 19,426 first doses and 4,615 second doses have been given.
Mount Nittany Health learned Monday that it would receive doses to allow for 1,000 additional appointments, and those slots quickly filled by Tuesday afternoon. The health system updates its vaccine availability at noon Tuesdays at mountnittany.org/coronavirus.
The breakdown of confirmed Centre County cases by ZIP code, and the change from the previous day (if any), is as follows, according to the Health Department:
- 16801 (State College): 4,482 (+5)
- 16823 (Bellefonte/Pleasant Gap): 2,116 (+6)
- 16803 (State College): 1,059
- 16686 (Tyrone): 891 (+1)
- 16802 (University Park): 822 (-6)
- 16866 (Philipsburg): 711 (+1)
- 16870 (Port Matilda): 370 (+1)
- 16841 (Howard): 301 (+1)
- 16845 (Karthaus): 252
- 16828 (Centre Hall): 231 (+2)
- 16875 (Spring Mills): 219
- 16827 (Boalsburg): 216
- 16844 (Julian): 158 (+2)
- 16822 (Beech Creek): 156
- 16666 (Osceola Mills): 141
- 16853 (Milesburg): 111
- 16874 (Snow Shoe): 87
- 16877 (Warriors Mark): 87 (+3)
- 16865 (Pennsylvania Furnace): 73
- 16854 (Millheim): 57
- 16826 (Blanchard): 54
- 16829 (Clarence): 54
- 16872 (Rebersburg): 53
- 16820 (Aaronsburg): 46
- 16851 (Lemont): 44
- 16859 (Moshannon): 40
- 16856 (Mingoville): 28
- 16677 (Sandy Ridge): 22
- 16832 (Coburn): 22
- 16868 (Pine Grove Mills): 22
- 16860 (Munson): 20
- 16852 (Madisonburg): 17
- 16835 (Unionville): 11
- 16864 (Orviston): 9
- 16804 (State College): 8
- 16882 (Woodward): 8
- 16805 (State College): 1-4
The state does not provide specific numbers when there are fewer than five cases to protect patient privacy, and does not identify exactly where a case occurred in a ZIP code that spans multiple counties.
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 1:13 PM with the headline "Feb. 16 update: Centre County sees drop in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, positivity."