Centre County moves from ‘high’ to ‘medium’ in the CDC’s COVID-19 community level
Centre County has moved down to the medium level of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 Community Level scale, according to a Thursday update.
Centre County moved to the high level last week, based on data from the week of May 19-25. Masks are recommended indoors in counties with high community levels, regardless of one’s vaccination status.
In the medium level, the CDC only recommends those at high risk for severe illness talk to their health care provider about whether to wear a mask.
The CDC’s community levels are measured by weekly new cases per 100,000 people, new COVID-19 hospitalizations per 100,000 people and the average percent of staffed inpatient beds by COVID patients.
A low community level requires fewer than 200 weekly COVID cases per 100,000 people; based on data updated Thursday evening, Centre County had 216.15 cases per 100,000 people for the week of May 26-June 1. For the previous seven days, there were 248.79 cases per 100,000 people.
Centre County was at 13.7 new COVID admissions per 100,000 people from May 19-25, and that number decreased to 9.5 for the past week. The percent of staffed inpatient beds in use by people with COVID-19 did increase slightly, from 5.7% to 7.7%.
Mount Nittany Health had 19 COVID patients on June 1, with 15 or more patients each day since Saturday, according to the hospital dashboard.
Before last week’s update, Centre County had been at the low level since March. The shift into the high category prompted the State College Area School District and Penn State’s University Park campus to return to required masking indoors.
In an email to families on Thursday evening, SCASD Superintendent Bob O’Donnell wrote that the district will return to optional masking indoors starting Friday.
For Penn State to rescind a campus’ mask requirement, that campus’ home county must move away from a high COVID community level for at least two consecutive weeks.
Seventeen counties in Pennsylvania remain in the high community level, according to the Thursday update, including Clinton County.
This story was originally published June 2, 2022 at 7:13 PM.