Mixed updates in Luzerne County’s latest COVID-19 benchmark reading

Luzerne County’s average daily COVID-19 hospitalizations remained at the same level last week, although the number of county residents on ventilators increased.

Meanwhile, the number of new coronavirus cases and positivity rate decreased, according to the state’s latest early warning dashboard update.

An average daily 122.1 county residents were hospitalized the week ending Dec. 23, a decrease of 0.9 from the prior week’s 123.

For context, the county’s average was 130.6 hospitalizations in mid-January and 3.3 in late July.

Of those hospitalized last week, an average 15.4 were on ventilators each day, or 8.4 more than the count two weeks ago, said the state health department’s report posted at www.health.pa.gov.

There were 1,220 new confirmed cases in the county last week, which is a decrease of 253 compared to the previous week’s 1,473 new cases, it said.

That lowered the county’s incidence rate, or number of cases per 100,000 residents, from 464.1 two weeks ago to a new 384.4. The county’s incidence rate now falls under the statewide number.

The county’s positivity rate, or the percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results, is now 15.3% — a decrease from the prior week’s 17.1%. With this reduction, the county’s positivity rate now matches the statewide rate.

In the remaining dashboard statistic, 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, it said.

State numbers

The state had increases in all six early warning benchmarks over the two-week period.

Statewide, there were 50,758 new cases last week, or 6,322 more than the prior week’s 44,436 new cases, the dashboard said.

As a result, the state’s incidence rate rose from 347.1 to 396.5.

The state’s positivity rate increased from 14.4% to 15.3% over the two weeks, it said.

COVID-19 hospitalizations jumped from an average daily 4,581.3 two weeks ago to 4,846.6 last week, or an increase of 265.3.

The average daily number of hospitalized patients on ventilators rose from 557 to 578.4 over the two-week period, or an increase of 21.4, the dashboard said.

Finally, ER visits increased from 1.9% to 2%.

Vaccines

With the addition of 1,513 since Dec. 17, the county now has 62% of eligible residents fully vaccinated, according to the state’s vaccine dashboard at health.pa.gov.

A total 186,422 of 300,742 eligible county residents have received all shots required for full vaccination.

Of those already fully vaccinated in the county, 69,259 have obtained an additional booster shot since Aug. 13.

Another 23,419 county residents are partially vaccinated because they did not yet receive both required doses, the dashboard said.

Luzerne County currently ranks 12th among Pennsylvania counties for its percentage of eligible residents fully vaccinated.

Montour County remains the highest, with 76.9% of 17,182 eligible residents fully vaccinated.

Pediatric vaccines

As of Monday, 3,053 county children ages 5 to 11 had received both doses required for full vaccination, with another 1,341 partially vaccinated, the dashboard said.

To gauge how this compares, here are the number of fully vaccinated children in this age group in 10 other similarly-categorized, third-class counties in the state that have populations ranging from 210,000 to under 500,000: Berks, 3,771; Chester, 12,850; Cumberland, 3,697; Erie, 3,133; Lackawanna, 3,350; Lancaster, 5,369; Lehigh, 5,595; Northampton, 3,293; Westmoreland, 2,683; and York, 3,200.

Testing

A free outdoor, drive-up COVID-19 testing site will be available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at the South Main Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, which is located at 400 S. Main St., said county Emergency Management Agency Director Lucy Morgan.

This testing option may be more appealing to some because no appointment is required, and it can accommodate up to 400 tests per day, she said.

The state Department of Health is providing the pop-up site through a partnership with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare. It also was open Monday and “extremely busy,” Morgan said.

“We’re very fortunate to be able to have this state testing,” Morgan said.