Centre County moves to high COVID-19 community level, CDC recommends masking indoors

Centre County returned to high on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s community levels scale on Thursday.

This is the first time since late May that Centre County has been at the high level. Eight other Pennsylvania counties are at the high level, including Huntingdon and Mifflin counties.

At the high level, the CDC recommends wearing masks while indoors and monitoring for symptoms.

The community level metric is based not just on new cases, but also new hospital admissions per 100,000 people (a seven-day total) and percent of occupied COVID-19 hospital beds (a seven-day average).

As of Thursday, Centre County had a case rate of 242.6 per 100,000 people, with 5.3% of inpatient beds occupied. Mount Nittany reported 11 COVID-19 hospitalizations on Friday, with no patients in the ICU or on ventilators.

Penn State expected a rise in cases at the start of the semester, expanding isolation spaces for students. In previous semesters, cases have spiked early before dropping.

Officials confirmed on Sept. 1 that University Park’s 46 on-campus and 26 off-campus isolation rooms were in use.

State College Area School District released a letter to families on Friday highly recommending masks while Centre County is at the high community level. The district recorded 73 cases from Sept 2-9, 60 of which were students. The district is asking families to report and follow CDC isolation procedures if students test positive.

No school district in Centre County is requiring masks, regardless of community level.