An average daily 89 Luzerne County residents were hospitalized for COVID-19 last week — an increase of 15.7 from the prior week’s average daily 73.3, the state’s latest early warning dashboard update shows.

For context, the county’s average daily hospitalizations were 3.3 in the week ending July 22 and 130.6 in mid-January of this year.

Use of ventilators also is up among county coronavirus patients, it said.

An average daily 12.4 hospitalized residents were on ventilators last week, or 2.4 more than the prior week’s 10.

Posted at www.health.pa.gov, the state health department’s dashboard covers weekly statistics through Thursday, which means the most recent data covers the weeks ending Nov. 18 and Nov. 25.

There were 1,094 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the county last week, which is an increase of 90 compared to the previous week’s 1,004 new cases, the dashboard said.

That rise elevated the county’s incidence rate, or number of cases per 100,000 residents, from 316.3 two weeks ago to 344.7 last week, it said.

The county’s positivity rate, or the percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results, is now 16.4% compared to 15.4% two weeks ago.

In the remaining dashboard benchmark, the percentage of hospital visits tied to coronavirus-like illnesses in the county rose from 1.7% two weeks ago to 1.8% last week.

State numbers

Figures rose in four of five benchmark categories at the statewide level last week.

However, the statewide incidence and positivity rates both remain lower than those in Luzerne County.

Statewide, there were 32,662 new cases last week, or 526 more than the prior week’s 32,136.

That boosted the incidence rate from 251 to 255.1.

The state’s positivity rate also had a slight increase from 12% two weeks ago to 12.1% last week.

COVID-19 hospitalizations jumped from an average daily 2,860.4 two weeks ago to 3,276.3 last week, or an increase of 415.9.

The average daily number of hospitalized patients on ventilators rose from 351.9 to 421.7 over the two-week period, or an increase of 69.8, the dashboard said.

ER visits remained the same at 1.6%.

Vaccines

As of Sunday, a total 179,718 county residents were fully vaccinated, according to the state’s vaccine dashboard at health.pa.gov.

That means approximately 60% of county residents are now fully covered, the state said.

Of those already fully vaccinated in the county, 46,996 have obtained an additional booster shot since Aug. 13.

Another 20,051 county residents are partially vaccinated because they did not yet receive both required doses, the dashboard said.

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.