New covid-19 cases in Pennsylvania continue to slow

New cases of coronavirus appear to be on a downward trajectory in Pennsylvania, with hospitalization numbers following suit.

Over the past two days, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported Monday, the state saw 10,068 new cases of the virus. When comparing it to last week’s numbers (12,844), that’s a 21.6% decline. Against one month ago, when there were 15,100 new cases reported over Dec. 20-21, the drop is even stronger: 33%.

Officials have said the Sunday-Monday period sees fewer new cases reported because of the lull in testing and processing over the weekend. However, the seven-day new case numbers are also down statewide. From Jan. 12-18, the state recorded 6,527 new cases, a 25% drop from the same period a week earlier (8,722), and 33% from the Dec. 12-18 period (9,803).

As for covid hospitalizations, health officials reported Monday that 4,582 Pennsylvanians are currently being cared for in hospitals — with 950 of those in intensive care units and 583 on ventilators.

Those numbers are 12.5% lower than they were a week ago (5,232), and 25% fewer than Dec. 18 (6,147).

Officials reported the statewide percent positivity for the week of Jan. 8-14 stood at 12.7%.

According to the report, Pennsylvania hospitals, through Sunday, have distributed 457,347 doses of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which includes vaccines administered through the CVS as part of the Federal Pharmacy Partnership.

There are 329,767 people who have received one dose, and 63,790 people who have received two doses.

The good news on the new cases and hospitalization fronts are tempered however by Pennsylvania’s still growing covid death rate.

Officials announced 202 more covid-related deaths in the past 48 hours — an increase of 8.6% from Dec. 10-11 (186). The new report brings the total number of Pennsylvanians who have died of covid to 19,390.

Among the Pennsylvania counties reporting the most new cases for the Sunday-Monday period, Allegheny County saw the most with 796. Montgomery (688) was second, followed by Philadelphia (652), York (561) and Lancaster (525).

Since the start of the pandemic last March, 771,845 cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Pennsylvania, with 681,461 of those confirmed with PCR tests. There have been 3,481,716 residents testing negative.