COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations slow as PA health officials urge residents to get boosters

After setting records in January, COVID-19 cases appear to be slowing down this month.

During the week Feb. 10-16, daily case totals never broke triple digits in Centre County, ranging from a low of 23 on Feb. 14 to a high of 93 on Feb. 12.

As of Feb. 16, there have been a total of 34,337 cases — 30,538 confirmed and 3,799 probable — along with 85,605 negative tests.

There have been 12 deaths so far this month, including one each on Feb. 10, Feb. 11, Feb. 12 and Feb. 15, which brings the total to 333.

COVID hospitalizations also have fallen locally.

As of Feb. 16, Mount Nittany Medical Center was treating 22 COVID patients, about half as many as a week ago.

Patients were between ages 49 and 100, and none were in intensive care or on ventilators. The number of fully vaccinated and not vaccinated patients was split evenly.

The state’s nursing home dashboard update on Feb. 11 shows that during the past four weeks:

• There have been six resident cases at Centre Care, 23 at Embassy of Hearthside and 1-4 at Juniper Village at Brookline (when there are fewer than five cases, the state does not specify the exact number).
• There have been 19 staff cases at Centre Care, 24 at Embassy of Hearthside, 1-4 at Foxdale Village, eight at Juniper Village at Brookline, 1-4 at The Village at Penn State and 16 at Windy Hill Village

Centre County’s positivity rate fell almost 5 percentage points, according to the state’s early warning monitoring system dashboard. The county had a 12.9% rate for the week Feb. 4-10 compared to 18.3% over the previous seven days. The statewide rate took a similar path, falling to 12.7% from 18.5%.

Statewide outlook

The state Health Department, upon releasing new data on post-vaccination, or breakthrough, cases, again urged residents to get vaccinated.

From January 2021 through last week in Pennsylvania, 71% of cases, 83% of hospitalizations and 80% of deaths were in those who were unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated.

Those percentages match other states, acting Health Secretary Keara Klinepeter said Wednesday.

“Pennsylvania and national data show that COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective for preventing hospitalizations and deaths, even as more post-vaccination cases occur in the context of more transmissible variants and more residents getting vaccinated,” Klinepeter said in a statement. “I encourage everyone 12 and older to get a booster dose now.”

Centre County remained in the high level of community transmission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website showed.

According to the CDC, 69% of Centre County’s total population has received at least one vaccine dose, while 58.8% is fully vaccinated. Just about half of the fully vaccinated population has received a booster.

As of Feb. 14, the CDC said, 76.1% of Pennsylvanians 18 and older are fully vaccinated. Vaccine rates fell statewide (excluding Philadelphia) by almost 11% during the past week, the Health Department said.

Statewide, from Feb. 7-13, the daily average number of cases was 3,695. The previous week’s average was 5,487.

The number of COVID hospitalizations was almost 26% lower on Feb. 14 than the previous Monday.

As of Feb. 16, Pennsylvania has reported 2,731,855 cases and 6,035,361 negative tests. There have been 42,533 deaths statewide.

This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 6:22 PM with the headline "COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations slow as PA health officials urge residents to get boosters."