The number of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continued to drop statewide on Sunday.
The Department of Health registered 2,402 new COVID cases, the fewest new cases since late August 2021. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Johns Hopkins University, over the past week, the number of new daily cases in Pennsylvania dropped by 48 percent, while the number of deaths linked to coronavirus dropped by 30 percent. Hospitalizations are down 24 percent.
The rolling seven-day average of new cases now sits at 3,538, after peaking at 28,685 a month ago.
The DOH did not add COVID-related deaths to the statewide total on Sunday.
Locally, there were 29 new cases added on Sunday, the third time in four days with fewer than 100 new cases in the four counties. There were 13 new cases in Northumberland County, eight in Union, six in Snyder and three in Montour. There were no new deaths registered in the Valley, the second day in a row.
Sixty-six of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties continued to see high community transmission of the disease on Sunday, meaning at least 100 new cases per 100,000 residents over the previous seven days. Sullivan County is now seeing substantial community spread, one of 58 counties nationwide not seeing high transmission rates.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 98.14 percent of counties nationwide were showing high levels of transmission. The CDC reports 0.78 percent — 25 counties nationwide — were showing low levels. All 50 states had high levels of community transmission.
According to the CDC, 76.1 percent of Pennsylvanians age 18 and older are fully vaccinated, and 66.5 percent of all Pennsylvanians are fully vaccinated.
Anyone who has had two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is considered fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
Hospitalizations
As of noon Sunday, there were 2,690 hospitalizations statewide, down 83 from Saturday. It is the lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients since Nov. 14, 2021.
Statewide, there were 460 in intensive care units (ICUs), and 295 were breathing using ventilators, down 10.
There were 102 patients hospitalized locally on Sunday, level with Saturday’s report. There were 70 patients at Geisinger in Danville, 10 at Geisinger-Shamokin and 22 at Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg.
Geisinger’s main campus in Danville had 16 patients in the ICU and 13 on a ventilator. At Evangelical, three patients were in the ICU and one was on a ventilator.
Prisons, state facilities
At the federal prison system in Union County, Allenwood’s medium-security facility had 77 active inmate cases Sunday, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons. There were no active staff cases. There were three inmate cases at the low-security unit along with two staff cases and three inmate cases and one staff case at the United States Penitentiary (USP) in Allenwood. All of the numbers were the same since Friday.
There were 32 inmate cases and 18 staff infections at USP-Lewisburg.
There were 12 inmate cases and seven staff cases at the State Correctional Institution in Coal Township, according to the state Department of Corrections (DOC). Statewide there were 403 inmate cases and another 372 staff cases.
As of Saturday, there were seven cases among those receiving services and 68 among staffers at the Selinsgrove Center. At Danville State Hospital, there were five resident and six staff cases. All reports have remained level since late last week.
There were fewer than five staff infections at the boys and girls units at the North Central Secure Treatment Unit and no youth cases, all also remained unchanged from Friday’s report.
