COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the rise in Centre County and Pennsylvania
Centre County added hundreds of COVID-19 reinfections to its count during the past week as part of a change to the national case definition.
Previously, the state Health Department reported people only once who were positive. Now, those who test positive more than once at least 90 days apart are counted again.
As of Nov. 19, the county’s case total stands at 22,017 — 427 of which are reinfections that were added to the count on Nov. 13. In all, 19,837 of the cases are confirmed and 2,180 are probable. There have been 83,943 negative tests.
From Nov. 13-19, there were 401 new cases, an increase of 86 from the previous seven days.
Five deaths were reported — two on Nov. 13, one on Nov. 16 and two on Nov. 18 — to bring the county’s total to 253. There have been nine deaths so far in November, matching last month’s total.
‘Taxed’ health care system
Mount Nittany Medical Center is treating, on average, almost double the number of COVID-19 patients as this time last year.
As of Nov. 19, the average daily number of COVID patients this month is 31 compared to 17 during the same period in November 2020, Mount Nittany Health officials said in their weekly update. There have been a total of 87 COVID cases this month.
On Nov. 19, there were 34 COVID patients at Mount Nittany between ages 47 and 86. There were two patients in intensive care and two on ventilators, according to the health system dashboard. Overall, 22 of the patients were not vaccinated.
“Our community and region are feeling the effects of taxed hospital resources due to the number of COVID inpatients and continued difficulty discharging them to long-term care facilities,” Dr. Upendra Thaker, Mount Nittany Medical Center chief medical officer, said in a statement.
In short, Thaker said, this has left fewer beds for other patients: “This means we must continually evaluate our operations and reschedule elective surgeries, if necessary. We strongly encourage the community to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and take precautionary measures to prevent and reduce transmission of the disease as we enter the peak time period for other respiratory illnesses, like the flu.”
Vaccination update
Every Pennsylvania county remained under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s high level of community transmission. The CDC recommends that everyone in high-level counties wear masks while indoors in public.
Among Pennsylvanians 18 and older, 73.5% were fully vaccinated, the CDC said. A week ago, that figure was 72.9%.
The CDC said that in Centre County:
- 70.8% of the total population received at least one vaccine dose (last week’s figure: 68.9%) with 55.8% fully vaccinated (last week: 55.5%).
- 77.6% of those 18 and older received at least one dose (last week: 76%) with 62.1% fully vaccinated (last week: 61.7%).
- 99.9% of those 65 and older received at least one dose (unchanged) with 94% fully vaccinated (last week: 93.6%).
All adults in Pennsylvania are eligible for a COVID booster shot, acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said on Nov. 19. Anyone 18 and older can schedule a booster six months after their second Pfizer or Moderna dose or two months after their Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the Health Department said. The brand of booster does not have to match that of the initial doses.
For more information about first, second, third or booster doses, visit:
- Mount Nittany Health at mountnittany.org/covid;
- Centre Volunteers in Medicine at cvim.net; or
- vaccines.gov for other providers
The picture in PA
Statewide, 15,414 reinfection cases from the counties outside of Philadelphia were added. As of Nov. 19, there have been a total of 1,674,328 cases.
Excluding the reinfections, there were 40,044 cases from Nov. 13-19. That’s an increase of about 8,300 from the previous week’s total (which does not include reinfection cases that were added a week ago from Philadelphia).
There have been 5,844,084 negative tests, and 92% of people have recovered across Pennsylvania.
There have been 32,825 deaths, an increase of 546. There were 424 deaths during the previous week.
Hospitalizations rose throughout the week and on Nov. 19 were at their highest point this month with 3,095 total patients.
This story was originally published November 20, 2021 at 8:25 AM with the headline "COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the rise in Centre County and Pennsylvania."