COVID cases, hospitalizations continue to rise during the opening week of 2022

Since the start of 2022, Centre County has reported three of the four highest one-day COVID-19 case totals of the pandemic.

With 319 additional cases Jan. 1, the county set a record to begin the new year.

On Jan. 7, the county added 308 cases, which marked the second highest daily total. The previous daily record of 302, set in December 2020, fell to No. 3.

The fourth highest total, 293, was reported Jan. 5. The county ended 2021 with the fifth highest daily case total: 284 on Dec. 31.

As of Jan. 7, Centre County has reported a total of 27,748 cases — 25,129 confirmed and 2,619 probable — along with 86,291 negative tests.

The state Health Department has logged six Centre County COVID deaths in 2022. There was also a death reported Dec. 31; the county’s total stands at 295.

‘Case numbers to remain elevated’

Mount Nittany Health officials said Jan. 7 that elective surgeries requiring an overnight stay will resume on a limited basis along with all endoscopy procedures as of Jan. 10. They had been postponed since mid-December due to the high number of COVID patients. Patients may still face longer-than-usual waits in the emergency department, the health system said.

On Jan. 7, Mount Nittany Medical Center was treating 45 COVID patients between the ages of 29 and 88, according to the dashboard. Four patients were in intensive care and on a ventilator. Of the total, 33 patients were not vaccinated.

From Jan. 3-7, patient totals on the dashboard ranged from 45 to 48 and ages ranged from 25 to 90.

In December, the hospital saw a daily average of 57 COVID patients. There were 236 cases in all last month, the health system said.

Mount Nittany officials continue to urge community members to take precautions against the virus, such as wearing a mask, washing hands and getting vaccinated.

“We are coming out from the holiday period, and we do expect case numbers to remain elevated in the coming weeks and potentially increase even more,” Dr. Upendra Thaker, Mount Nittany Medical Center chief medical officer, said in a statement. “Schools and universities are returning from winter break which will likely lead to continued community spread.”

Vaccine appointments can be made with Mount Nittany Health at mountnittany.org/coronavirus or Centre Volunteers in Medicine at cvim.net/covid-information. Other vaccine providers can be found at vaccines.gov.

The Health Department said on Jan. 6 that children 12 and older are now eligible for a Pfizer booster shot five months after their first round of vaccines. Boosters are now recommended for anyone 12 and older who received two Pfizer vaccinations after five months (the previous guidance of six months was updated).

“It is great news to see booster eligibility expanded and we know providers are ready to offer more protection for Pennsylvanians,” Physician General Dr. Denise Johnson said in a statement. “The Department of Health urges all eligible Pennsylvanians who have yet to get vaccinated to do so immediately and for those people who are eligible to receive a booster shot to get that added level of protection as soon as possible.”

Tracking the Centre County cases

Between Dec. 30 and Jan. 7, there was one new case at Benner state prison and four new cases at Rockview state prison, according to the Department of Corrections dashboard.

The state nursing home dashboard shows there have been 13 resident cases at Centre Care during the past four weeks as well as at least one each at Juniper Village at Brookline and Windy Hill Village. Centre Care reported 12 staff cases during that time, while Foxdale Village, Juniper Village, The Village at Penn State and Windy Hill Village each had at least one staff case.

Here’s a breakdown of the total number of confirmed cases in each ZIP code that is partially or fully in Centre County, according to the state Health Department. The number of cases reported between Dec. 30 and Jan. 7 is in parentheses.

• 16801 (State College): 7,561 (406)
• 16823 (Bellefonte/Pleasant Gap): 4,834 (313)
• 16803 (State College): 2,560 (334)
• 16686 (Tyrone): 2,090 (92)
• 16802 (University Park): 1,694 (18)
• 16866 (Philipsburg): 1,547 (71)
• 16870 (Port Matilda): 976 (93)
• 16841 (Howard): 847 (63)
• 16828 (Centre Hall): 597 (36)
• 16827 (Boalsburg): 579 (72)
• 16875 (Spring Mills): 545 (21)
• 16844 (Julian): 452 (35)
• 16666 (Osceola Mills): 437 (21)
• 16822 (Beech Creek): 413 (12)
• 16845 (Karthaus): 412 (12)
• 16853 (Milesburg): 232 (14)
• 16874 (Snow Shoe): 225 (11)
• 16877 (Warriors Mark): 222 (12)
• 16826 (Blanchard): 192 (12)
• 16865 (Pennsylvania Furnace): 167 (20)
• 16854 (Millheim): 144 (6)
• 16820 (Aaronsburg): 142 (9)
• 16829 (Clarence): 138 (10)
• 16872 (Rebersburg): 124 (12)
• 16851 (Lemont): 117 (12)
• 16859 (Moshannon): 81 (8)
• 16832 (Coburn): 68 (3)
• 16868 (Pine Grove Mills): 61 (8)
• 16677 (Sandy Ridge): 57 (2)
• 16835 (Unionville): 51 (13)
• 16860 (Munson): 51 (3)
• 16856 (Mingoville): 43 (4)
• 16852 (Madisonburg): 36 (0)
• 16882 (Woodward): 32 (3)
• 16804 (State College): 17 (1)
• 16864 (Orviston): 16 (1)
• 16805 (State College): 1-4 (The state does not provide specific numbers when there are fewer than five cases to protect patient privacy.)

PA responds to growing number of patients

Gov. Tom Wolf’s office said Jan. 7 that the state is working to increase the number of hospital beds and staff for hospitals and nursing homes amid a surge of COVID patients and a shortage of health care workers, The Associated Press reported.

The number of COVID hospitalizations reached 6,680 on Jan. 7, the highest they’ve been during the pandemic, The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania said.

“Hospital teams are working through extraordinary circumstances to provide high quality care; but they are strained. Hospitals are treating more people with COVID-19 than at any other time during this pandemic and the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has increased 51 percent in the past two weeks alone,” association President and CEO Andy Carter said in a statement. “This surge comes during the most severe health care staffing shortage in recent memory.”

Cases are being added to Pennsylvania’s total at a record pace. The four highest daily case counts have been logged over the four-day span Jan. 4-7.

On Jan. 7, the state reported an additional 32,053 cases, which is the highest one-day increase of the pandemic.

The other record totals during 2022 were:

• No. 2 highest day: 28,018 cases on Jan. 5
• No. 3 highest day: 27,364 cases on Jan. 6
• No. 4 highest day: 24,850 cases on Jan. 4

The fifth highest case total wasn’t far behind either, with 22,368 cases on Dec. 31.

As of Jan. 7, there have been a total of 2,206,899 cases along with 6,042,011 negative tests.

Statewide, there have been 37,522 deaths, an increase of 883 since Dec. 30.

Vaccine, positivity rate update

More than 98% of counties in the U.S. — including every one east of the Mississippi River — are in the high level of community transmission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Jan. 7.

CDC figures show that in Centre County:

• 66.6% of the total population received one vaccine dose, with 57.3% fully vaccinated
• 41% of the fully vaccinated population received a booster

In Pennsylvania:

• 64.3% of the total population is fully vaccinated. (The state with the highest percentage is Vermont, at 77.9%.)
• About 8.2 million residents are fully vaccinated. That’s fifth highest among the 50 states.

For the week Dec. 31-Jan. 6, Centre County’s positivity rate jumped to 30.7 from 23.2% during the previous week. The county number is still below Pennsylvania’s positivity rate of 34.1%, which marks an increase of almost 10 points from the prior seven days.

This story was originally published January 8, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "COVID cases, hospitalizations continue to rise during the opening week of 2022."