Luzerne County currently ranks 11th among Pennsylvania counties for its percentage of eligible residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the latest state update posted Friday.
A total 157,637 county residents are now fully vaccinated, or 55.6% of the 283,657 population estimated to be eligible.
There are 67 counties in the state, although Philadelphia is not part of the state statistics.
Coronavirus vaccines are only available to those over age 11 at this time.
Montour County is at the head of the pack, with 70% of its 16,134 eligible residents fully vaccinated.
Neighboring Lackawanna County is fifth, with a 62.6% vaccination rate. It has 116,909 of 186,666 eligible residents fully vaccinated.
A list of the other counties with rates higher than Luzerne’s, along with their percentages and number of residents fully vaccinated: Forest, 64.9%, 4,512; Lehigh, 64.2%, 208,576; Chester, 63%, 292,562; Allegheny, 62.5%, 681,421; Northampton, 59.8%, 164,194; Montgomery, 57.3%, 422,043; Butler, 56.5%, 95,146; and Delaware, 56.1%, 279,809.
Closest to home, here are the rates of the other counties bordering Luzerne aside from Lackawanna, including their rates and count of fully vaccinated residents: Carbon, 52.8%, 30,569; Columbia, 52.5%, 31,013; Wyoming, 52.4%, 12,629; Schuylkill, 52.3%, 66,403; Monroe, 48.7%, 75,019; and Sullivan, 45.8%, 2,625.
The state health departments vaccine dashboard is posted at health.pa.gov.
State health officials emphasize vaccination is the greatest protection available for residents. Most people who are hospitalized or died from COVID-19 are unvaccinated, the state said.
Weekly assessment
Hospitalizations continue to rise in Luzerne County, according to the state’s early warning dashboard update posted Friday.
An average daily 23.6 county residents were hospitalized for the coronavirus this week ending Thursday, or 4.3 more than the average daily 19.3 hospitalized the week ending Aug. 5.
The number of hospitalized county residents on ventilators also increased slightly, from 2.1 to 2.3, the dashboard said.
In an encouraging sign, the number of new cases decreased over the two-week period.
There were 202 new cases this week, or 45 less than the prior week’s 247 additional cases, said the dashboard update posted at www.health.pa.gov.
As a result, the number of cases per 100,000 residents, known as the incidence rate, decreased from 77.8 last week to 63.6 this week.
The county’s positivity rate, or the percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results, dropped from 7.5% last week to 5.8% this week.
Finally, hospital emergency room visits tied to coronavirus-like illnesses rose from 0.8% to 0.9% over the two weeks.
State figures
There were 8,912 new confirmed cases statewide this week, or 1,541 more than last week’s 7,371.
That pushed up the state incidence rate from 57.6 to 69.6 and the positivity rate from 5.4% to 6%.
Average daily hospitalizations rose from 556.4 last week to a current 834.7, or an increase of 278.3.
An average daily 98.7 hospitalized residents are on ventilators, or 33.8 more than last week.
ER visits linked to COVID-19 remained at 0.9%.
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.
