Penn State again sees significant drop in weekly COVID infections, as cases across Pa. plummet
For the second consecutive week, Penn State experienced a steep drop in weekly COVID cases — with fewer than half the number of cases compared to the week before — as the commonwealth has also seen a dramatic reduction in infections.
Based on university data from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, which was updated Tuesday, University Park experienced a semester-low 126 confirmed coronavirus infections, which is more on pace with cases shortly after Thanksgiving or during the start of the fall semester. Omicron has followed a somewhat predictable pattern on campus, with Penn State cases rising for three weeks before eventually crashing — 434 from Jan. 3-9, then 539, 631, 340 and now 126.
“We are seeing a decline in our detected cases, but we know that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon,” Kelly Wolgast, director of Penn State’s COVID-19 Operations Control Center, said in a written statement. “Our layered approach to mitigation is helping us to be successful in our classrooms and in other university activities and we will continue to keep those mitigation measures in place for the foreseeable future.
“Additionally, the data is clear that vaccine protections are helping to decrease the risk of infection and if someone does get COVID-19, up-to-date vaccination can reduce the severity of illness. So, we strongly encourage all Penn Staters and others in our communities to get their COVID-19 vaccine booster dose as soon as they are eligible.”
Penn State’s decrease in cases is reflected both in the numbers from Centre County and Pennsylvania, as the omicron variant has peaked in many areas around the U.S. Pennsylvania, for instance, saw an average of 5,487 daily cases over the last week — compared to 11,405 cases the week prior, for a 52% decline. Centre County experienced 539 total cases last week, compared to 1,087 the week before, for about a 50% decrease.
“Weekly COVID-19 trends in Pennsylvania are continuing to move in the right direction,” Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter acknowledged Tuesday in a written statement.
According to the CDC, 75.6% of Pennsylvania adults are fully vaccinated. At University Park, 91.4% of students and 86% of employees have told Penn State they’re vaccinated.
Penn State will update its COVID-19 dashboard every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the semester. It can be found at virusinfo.psu.edu/covid-19-dashboard/.
