Luzerne County had 71 new confirmed coronavirus cases from Sept. 11 to Thursday — a decrease of 16 from the prior week’s 87, according to the state health department’s latest Friday early warning dashboard update.
As a result, the county’s incidence rate, or number of cases per 100,000 residents, decreased from 27.4 to 22.4 over the two-week period, it said.
The “positivity rate,” or percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results, was 2.7%, a reduction from in the county from the previous week’s 4%.
Despite the improvements, county school districts will remain in the “moderate” ranking for community transmission.
School districts in “moderate” counties should avoid full in-person instruction and use either remote-only learning or a blended hybrid model, with some students in school while others learn remotely at home, the state said.
To advance to the “low” virus spread ranking, counties must have both fewer than 10 cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period and a positivity rate below 5%, the state has said. Districts in counties ranked as “low” transmission should consider full in-person instruction for all students or a blended system, the state said.
In another dashboard benchmark, the county’s average daily number of coronavirus hospitalizations decreased from 15 to 14.3.
The two remaining measurements:
• On average, 0.3 coronavirus patient was on a ventilator each day, compared to 0.1 the week before.
• The county’s hospital visits due to coronavirus-like illnesses decreased from 0.6% to 0.3%.
State results
Pennsylvania’s positivity rate decreased from 4.2% to 3.8% in the latest week, ending a trend of rising rates.
However, the number of cases rose overall.
There were 5,519 confirmed cases statewide in the most recent week, or 526 more than the prior week’s 4,993 cases, the dashboard said.
With that growth, the statewide cases per 100,000 rose from 39 to 43.1.
The remaining statewide dashboard updates:
• Average daily hospitalizations decreased from 496.6 to 479.4.
• The daily average number of patients on ventilators dropped from 62 to 58.1.
• The percentage of hospital visits due to coronavirus-like illnesses statewide remained the same — 0.6%.
The dashboard is posted at www.health.pa.gov.
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.
