Coronavirus hospitalizations rise again in Luzerne County

The number of Luzerne County residents hospitalized for coronavirus continues to rise along with cases, the state’s early warning update released Friday shows.

An average 47.1 county residents were hospitalized daily from Oct. 23 to Thursday, compared to 38.4 the prior week, according to the update posted at www.health.pa.gov.

For context, average daily county resident hospitalizations were 6.6 from Oct. 2 to 8 and 16.3 from Oct. 9 to Oct. 15.

The county added 422 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the most recent week from Oct. 23 to 29 — an increase of 46 from the previous week’s 376 new cases, the update says.

As a result, the county’s incidence rate, or number of cases per 100,000 residents, rose from 118.4 two weeks ago to a current 132.9, it said.

Also rising was the county’s positivity rate, or percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results, which jumped from 7.5% to 7.7%.

Based on the latest numbers, county school districts will remain in the highest classification of “substantial” community transmission in which remote-only learning is recommended by the state. This level is reached when the incidence rate is 100 or above or the positivity rate is 10% or higher.

Fifteen counties were in the substantial level this week, prompting the state health and education departments to speak with their school districts about implications, a state release said.

In addition to Luzerne, the other counties in the substantial category were Berks, Bradford, Centre, Elk, Huntingdon, Lackawanna, Lawrence, Lebanon, Mifflin, Montour, Northumberland, Philadelphia, Schuylkill and Westmoreland.

There are 43 counties in the “moderate” virus spread ranking, which means their districts were advised to avoid full in-person instruction.

To advance to the “low” 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 or a blended system, with some students in school while others learn remotely at home, the state said.

The nine counties in the low level: Cameron, Forest, Fulton, Jefferson, Pike, Potter, Sullivan, Warren and Wayne.

Two other statistics are reported in the dashboard:

• The average daily number of patients on ventilators decreased slightly from 4.4 to 3.6 in Luzerne County over the two-week period.

• The percentage of hospital visits due to coronavirus-like illnesses rose from 0.7% to 0.8%.

Statewide numbers

Pennsylvania also experienced a rise in cases, the latest update said.

There were 13,304 additional cases statewide in the week ending Thursday, or 2,980 more than the prior week’s 10,324.

With that increase, the statewide cases per 100,000 rose from 80.6 to 103.9. The state’s positivity rate increased from 5% to 6.1% in the latest week.

Other statewide benchmark updates:

• Average daily hospitalizations rose from 936 to 1,166.9.

• The daily average number of patients on ventilators increased from 100.6 to 118.7.

• The percentage of hospital visits due to coronavirus-like illnesses statewide went from 0.8% to 0.9%.

Neighboring Lackawanna County had 249 new cases in the latest week, a decrease from the prior week’s 289. It has an incidence rate of 118.1 and a 5.8% positivity rate.