Two local counties recorded a decrease in percent positivity during the time period of Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, and Elk County has improved to a “moderate” level of community transmission of COVID-19.
On Monday, Governor Tom Wolf and Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam released a weekly status update detailing the state’s mitigation efforts based on the COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring System dashboard, highlighting a seven-day case increase of 20,204, a statewide percent positivity of 8.6% and 59 counties with substantial transmission status.
Cameron County remains the only one with low transmission, while Elk and six other counties have reached the moderate stage, the health department’s data showed.
The update compares the period of Jan. 29 to Feb. 4 to the previous seven days, Jan. 22 to 28.
McKean and Elk counties each saw an improvement in percent positivity rates, with McKean County at 10%, down slightly from 10.2 percent during the prior time frame, and Elk County at 4.1%, down from 5.9% during the prior time frame.
“This is the first week in many, many weeks that we are seeing counties with lower than five percent positivity rates as well as all 67 counties reporting lower than 20 percent positivity rates — this is good news for mitigating the spread of this virus in our communities across the commonwealth,” Wolf said. “We can continue to fight this virus by wearing a mask, avoiding gatherings, washing hands, downloading the COVID Alert PA app, answering the call when public health professionals call and lastly, getting vaccinated when it’s your turn.”
As of Thursday, the state had seen a seven-day case increase of 20,204 cases; the previous seven-day increase was 25,985 cases, indicating 5,781 fewer new cases across the state over the past week compared to the previous week.
The statewide percent-positivity went down to 8.6% from 9.3% last week. There are now three counties that have a positivity rate lower than five percent. There are no counties reporting over 20 percent positivity rate.
In McKean County, there were 15 fewer confirmed cases during the reported time frame as compared to the prior one, but there was an increase of 3.7 average daily hospitalizations. In Elk County, there were 11 fewer confirmed cases, but an increase of 0.8 average daily hospitalizations.
In Potter County, there were 12 more confirmed cases of COVID-19 during this time frame as compared to the prior one, but a decrease of 0.6 in average daily hospitalizations.
The data showed no difference in the number of confirmed cases for Cameron County.
“We appreciate all residents who have taken steps to mitigate the spread in our communities and, while this fight is not over, our resilience in masking up, washing up and downloading the app are still as important as ever,” Beam said. “We continue to get vaccines into arms and ensure those in phase 1A who are taking care of others and are the most vulnerable receive their vaccine. While we wait for more vaccine, we need Pennsylvanians to be patient and continue practicing these proven health practices and mitigation efforts to unite against COVID-19.”
