Reopening updates: Centre County adds 73 cases of COVID-19, and other updates for Sept. 12

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Centre County adds 73 cases of COVID-19

Centre County reported 73 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday — mostly in the State College area — according to the state Department of Health. That’s the county’s third highest one-day total, with the four highest increases all occurring in the past four days. All except two of the cases reported Saturday were confirmed.

Since March 20, the county has had 1,135 cases — 1,083 are confirmed and 52 are probable. There have been 20,049 negative tests.

One person is hospitalized in Centre County due to COVID 19, according to the state dashboard.

The county’s incidence rate is about 297 cases per 100,000 residents during the past seven days.

The breakdown of Centre County cases by ZIP code is as follows, according to the DOH:

• 16801 (State College): 568 confirmed (43 new cases), 23 probable (2 new cases)
• 16802 (University Park): 140 (17 new cases), 0 probable
• 16803 (State College): 83 (4 new cases), 6 probable
• 16823 (Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap): 79 (1 new case), 6 probable
• 16686 (Tyrone): 32, 1-4 probable
• 16866 (Philipsburg): 26, 1-4 probable
• 16841 (Howard): 24, 1-4 probable
• 16875 (Spring Mills): 24 (1 new case), 0 probable
• 16870 (Port Matilda): 23 (1 new case), 1-4 probable
• 16827 (Boalsburg): 21 (2 new cases), 0 probable
• 16828 (Centre Hall): 14, 1-4 probable
• 16822 (Beech Creek): 12 (1 fewer case), 0 probable
• 16666 (Osceola Mills): 8, 1-4 probable
• 16844 (Julian): 6, 0 probable
• 16854 (Millheim): 6, 1-4 probable
• 16877 (Warriors Mark): 5, 0 probable
• 16820 (Aaronsburg): 5, 1-4 probable
• 16865 (Pennsylvania Furnace): 5, 0 probable
• 16804, 16829, 16832, 16845, 16852, 16860, 16868, 16872, 16874, 16882: 1-4 cases each

The state does not give specific numbers when there are fewer than five cases, to protect patient privacy, and does not identify exactly where a case occurred in a ZIP code that spans multiple counties.

Pennsylvania added 920 positive cases to bring the state total to 143,805. There have been 1.66 million negative tests, an an estimated 82% of patients have recovered. Statewide, there have been 7,862 deaths, including 25 new fatalities. There have been 11 deaths in Centre County related to COVID-19.

“We know that congregation, especially over holidays and in college and university settings, yields increased case counts. The mitigation efforts in place now are essential to flattening the curve and saving lives,” Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said in a statement. “Wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, and following the requirements set forth in the orders for bars and restaurants, gatherings, and telework will help keep our case counts low.”

In the north-central region of the state, which includes Centre County, 19- to 24-year-olds have gone from accounting for about 7% of cases in April to almost 69% of cases in September.

Statewide, the age breakdown of positive cases is:

• Approximately 1% are 0-4
• Nearly 2% are 5-12
• Approximately 4% are 13-18
• Nearly 12% are 19-24
• Nearly 37% are 25-49
• Nearly 22% are 50-64
• Approximately 22% are 65 or older

- by Matt Hymowitz

No move to remote learning, as Penn State adds 272 COVID-19 cases since last update

A week after Penn State President Eric Barron said he would consider moving the university to remote learning, he announced Friday that such a move was not yet necessary.

The announcement came on the heels of Friday’s updated COVID-19 dashboard, which showed 272 new cases of the coronavirus at University Park since Tuesday’s update. That brings the total number of cases involving students and employees at Penn State’s main campus to 688.

“At this time, we do not need to change our current modality and hybrid on-campus approach,” Barron said in a written statement. “The university is monitoring the number of positive and negative cases — and other variables critical to our decision-making — including isolation and quarantine capacity, hospitalizations, locational data, transmission from student cases to employees and community prevalence, to name a few.

- by Josh Moyer

Campus check-in

• The pandemic disrupted college sports again Saturday, with Virginia and Virginia Tech postponing their Sept. 19 football opener because of COVID-19 issues at Virginia Tech.

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This story was originally published September 12, 2020 at 12:11 PM.