Centre County adds 2 COVID-19 deaths as cases increase locally, across PA

An additional 380 COVID-19 cases and two deaths were reported Oct. 2-8 in Centre County.

That’s 15 more cases than the county saw during the previous seven days.

The past week’s daily totals ranged from a low of 24 on Oct. 5 to a high of 91 on Oct. 3.

As of Oct. 8, there have been a total of 19,769 cases — 17,904 confirmed and 1,865 probable — along with 80,484 negative tests.

The state Health Department reported a death Oct. 5 and another Oct. 6 to bring the county’s total to 237.

Mount Nittany Medical Center was treating 30 COVID patients as of Oct. 8 between the ages of 14 and 86. Two patients were in intensive care, and two were on ventilators, according to Mount Nittany Health’s dashboard, and 25 of the 30 patients were not vaccinated.

The previous Friday, there were 41 COVID patients in the hospital.

The average daily count of COVID patients rose from 27 in September to 33 in October with a total of 25 admissions this month, Dr. Upendra Thaker, chief medical officer, Mount Nittany Medical Center/chief clinical officer, Mount Nittany Physician Group, said in the health system’s weekly COVID-19 update.

The situation at Penn State

Over the most recent seven days of data, from Sept. 30 to Oct. 6, Penn State reported 26 cases of COVID-19 — from 22 students and four employees. That marks the fourth straight week the numbers have decreased, as confirmed infections stood at 51 last week.

Based on data from the university’s COVID-19 dashboard, 13 students are in quarantine and isolation, meaning capacity now stands at 6%. And the testing positivity rate over the most recent seven days is at 0.4%.

Cases, deaths up in PA

Cases are up across the state. There were 34,555 cases from Oct. 2-8, an increase of 2,089 from the previous week.

Daily case totals ranged from a low of 3,392 on Oct. 2 to a high of 6,289 the next day. One-day totals hadn’t topped 6,000 since mid-April.

Overall, there have been 1,469,847 cases along with 5,539,301 negative tests. Statewide, 90% of people have recovered.

Pennsylvania has reported a total of 29,907 deaths, an increase of 470. The previous week, there were 373 deaths.

The Health Department said the average number of hospitalized patients across the state continues to increase. The number of total patients peaked during the week at 3,001 on Oct. 7, the highest it’s been since early February.

Vaccine update

Every county in Pennsylvania remains in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s high level of community transmission. The CDC recommends that everyone in a high transmission area wear a mask while indoors in public.

The CDC said as of Oct. 8 that 69.6% of Pennsylvanians 18 and older are fully vaccinated.

In Centre County, the CDC said:

• 62.9% of the total population received at least one vaccine dose with 53.9% fully vaccinated.
• 70.1% of those 18 and older received at least one dose with 60% fully vaccinated.
• 99.9% of those 65 and older received at least one dose with 91.2% fully vaccinated.

Cases in children

Figures from the state show there were 18 cases in Centre County children between ages 0-4 during the week Sept. 29-Oct. 5. That is unchanged from the previous week. Among Centre County children ages 5-18, there were 65 cases, which is 13 fewer than the prior seven days.

Since the state began tracking COVID cases in children during this school year on Aug. 16, there have been 78 cases in Centre County children ages 0-4 and 465 cases in children 5-18.

“The case counts presented are total case counts in these age groups and are not necessarily cases exposed in school, early learning or child care settings,” the Health Department says each week about this data.

Cases in children accounted for a quarter of Centre County’s total cases during that week, a percentage that has generally remained constant during the past month.

Statewide, cases in school-age children (5-18) are more than nine times higher than last year. During the week of Sept. 29-Oct. 5, there were 7,046 cases; during the same week in 2020, there were 778 cases, the Health Department said.

This story was originally published October 9, 2021 at 7:28 AM with the headline "Centre County adds 2 COVID-19 deaths as cases increase locally, across PA."