The Daily Item
All four Valley counties are still seeing medium community transmission levels of COVID-19 while there are six counties statewide seeing high levels, according to the most recent data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Valley counties have had the same levels over the last five weeks.
For the last two weeks there was one county seeing high levels in Pennsylvania. That number jumped to five this week, including Crawford County, which has seen high levels of community transmission for two weeks. This week, Crawford is joined by Fulton, Franklin, Susquehanna, Bradford and Sullivan counties.
Community levels are determined by using a combination of three metrics — new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population in the past seven days, the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, and total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past seven days.
In Pennsylvania, 41 of the state’s 67 counties had low levels, 20 more than last week. Twenty Pennsylvania counties had medium levels. Nationwide, 9.3 percent of counties had high levels — up from 5.3 last week — 35.2 percent had medium levels and 55.5 percent had low levels.
According to data being tracked by the CDC and Johns Hopkins University, the number of coronavirus cases was up 30 percent in Pennsylvania in the last seven days, while the number of COVID-related hospitalizations was level. The number of COVID-related deaths statewide was up 18 percent.
Nationwide, cases are up 57 percent this week while deaths linked to COVID-19 are up 103 percent.
At the highest level of community spread, the CDC recommends individuals wear a well-fitting mask indoors in public, regardless of vaccination status, including in K-12 schools and other indoor community settings along with implementing health care surge support as needed.
Statewide, 10.9 percent of all COVID-19 tests in the last week were positive, 1 percent higher than last week. Three of four Valley counties had lower positive test rates than the state average.
Montour County’s positive test rate was 7.1 percent last week, followed by Snyder County at 9 percent, Union County (10.7 percent) and Northumberland County (11.2 percent).
