Another significant rise in Luzerne County coronavirus hospitalizations reported

Luzerne County’s coronavirus hospitalizations rose significantly last week, according to the state’s latest early warning dashboard update.

Its average daily COVID-19 hospitalizations jumped to 163.6 the week ending Jan. 13 — an increase of 30.3 from the prior week’s 133.3, according to the state’s latest early warning dashboard update.

This time a year ago, an average 130.6 county residents were hospitalized. The county’s average was only 3.3 in late July last year.

Not surprisingly, due to the fast-spreading omicron variant, the county’s new cases also grew.

There were 4,927 new cases in the county through Jan. 13, or an increase of 1,245 from the prior week’s 3,682 new cases.

As a result, the county’s incidence rate, or number of cases per 100,000 residents, rose from 1,160 two weeks ago to 1,552.2 last week.

Of those hospitalized last week, an average 13.1 were on ventilators each day, or 0.9 less than the count two weeks ago, said the state health department’s report posted at www.health.pa.gov.

The county’s positivity rate, or the percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results, rose from 35.7% two weeks ago to a new 39%.

In the remaining dashboard statistic, the percentage of hospital visits tied to coronavirus-like illnesses in the county decreased from 2.4% two weeks ago to 1.7% last week, it said.

Both the county’s incidence and positivity rates are higher than the statewide averages.

State numbers

Statewide, there were 158,354 new COVID-19 cases last week, or 15,664 more than the prior week’s 142,690 new cases, the dashboard said.

That boosted the state’s incidence rate from 1,114.6 to 1,236.9 over the two weeks.

The state’s positivity rate rose from 34.2% to a new 35.3% last week, it said.

Coronavirus hospitalizations grew statewide, from an average daily 5,914.3 two weeks ago to 7,496.1 last week, or an increase of 1,581.8.

The average daily number of hospitalized patients on ventilators also increased, from 618.9 to 674.3 over the two-week period, which is 55.4 higher, the dashboard said.

Finally, ER visits dropped from 2.7% to 1.8%.

Vaccines

Another 1,148 county residents were fully vaccinated with all required initial shots since Jan. 7, bringing the total to 63.1% of eligible residents, according to the state health department’s vaccination dashboard at health.pa.gov.

The details: 189,621 of 300,742 eligible county residents have received their initial shots.

Of those already fully vaccinated in the county, 79,857 have obtained an additional booster shot since Aug. 13.

Another 26,074 county residents are partially vaccinated because they did not yet receive both required initial doses, the dashboard said.

At 63.1%, Luzerne County is joined by two other counties — Bucks and Butler — in the 11th highest vaccination ranking.

Montour County remains at the top, with 78% of 17,182 eligible residents fully vaccinated. The percentages in other counties: Lehigh, 71.9%; Forest, 70.5%; Chester, 70.2%; Lackawanna, 69.6%; Allegheny, 69.2%; Northampton, 66.6%; Montgomery, 65.3%; Cumberland, 63.9%; and Delaware, 63.7%.

Pediatric vaccines

As of Jan. 14, a total 3,884 county children ages 5 to 11 had received both doses required for full initial vaccination since Nov. 2. Another 1,396 county children in this age group are partially vaccinated, the dashboard said.

Statewide, 192,864 children in this age group are now fully vaccinated, while another 261,995 have received the first shot, it said.

County efforts

During last week’s county council meeting, County Acting Manager Romilda Crocamo highlighted and thanked the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the county Emergency Management Agency, sheriff and road/bridge departments for providing COVID-19 testing to residents.

In total, 3,106 people were tested from Dec. 13 to Jan. 8, she said.

“That effort exemplified how when different county departments work together and with the state, we can do something very constructive for our community members,” she said.

Deaths

The county’s most recent coronavirus death victims included a 34-year-old and three residents in their 40s, according to a coroner’s office report covering 66 deaths that occurred between Dec. 23 and Jan. 14.

Another nine victims were in their 50s.

An age breakdown of the remaining deaths in this report: 14 in their 60s, 19 in their 70s, 14 in their 80s and six in their 90s.

Only eight were listed as residents of nursing homes or assisted living facilities.