Westmoreland County adds 354 covid cases in 2 days, 3 deaths

Over the past two days, Westmoreland County added 354 new covid-19 cases, according to Monday’s update from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The county added 187 cases Sunday and 167 on Monday. Of those, 149 and 132 were confirmed through PCR tests, respectively.

On Monday, Westmoreland posted the sixth highest number of new cases in the state.

Since the pandemic began in March, the county has recored a total of 6,266 cases — confirmed and probable — of coronavirus.

The state also announced there were three more covid-related deaths since Saturday, bringing the county’s total since the beginning of the pandemic to 136.

Testing in Westmoreland County is definitely on the rise. Since Oct. 1, the county’s seven-day average of first-time PCR tests is 523; on Oct. 1, it was only 245 — a 113% increase. However, the spike in positive results from those tests has increased significantly more. On Oct. 1, the county’s seven-day average of new positive tests was 17; Monday’s report has the number at 103 — an increase of more than 500%.

In addition to a rise in confirmed case rates, the county has seen a sharp rise in hospitalizations, going from just 11 on Oct. 1 to 63 as of Monday — a 473% increase.

According to the state’s covid-19 tracking website, of the 63 residents currently hospitalized with the virus, 13 of them are in intensive care units and seven on ventilators. State officials report there are 88 operational ventilators in the county, with 19 (21.5%) currently in use for all illnesses.

Westmoreland has seen a total of 5,128 PCR-confirmed cases of covid, with 57,800 residents tests coming back negative. That makes for an overall PCR positivity rate of 8.15%.