Berks tops 1,700 COVID deaths

David Mekeel, Reading Eagle, Pa.
·2 min read
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Nov. 25—Berks County has topped another tragic milestone, surpassing 1,700 deaths from COVID.

The three new deaths added to the county's pandemic total in the state's weekly update of COVID data brings the county's total to 1,701. Movements for other data included in the update were mostly positive for Berks, with new cases, hospitalizations and the case rate all down from the previous week.

Cases

The county saw a decrease in weekly cases for the second straight week.

According to Wednesday's update of the state Department of Health's COVID dashboard, Berks had 361 new cases and reinfections. That's down 53 from the 414 reported last week.

The 361 new weekly cases and reinfections are the lowest number for Berks since the state started reporting weekly data in early May.

The county's COVID cases per 100,000 residents were also down from data reported last week. The state's Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard showed that between Nov. 16 and 22 the county had a case rate of 52 per 100,000 people. Last week the rate was 58 per 100,000 people.

The positivity rate of 10.8% in Berks was up by more than a percentage point from the rate of 9.6% reported last week.

Overall, Berks has had 120,444 COVID cases during the pandemic.

Statewide, this week's data showed 58 COVID cases per 100,000 people and a positivity rate of 9.2%. Both were down slightly from data reported last week.

There have been 3,350,067 COVID cases in the state during the pandemic, with 10,052 new cases and reinfections added in Wednesday's data update.

Deaths

The state, which reports the number of Berks residents to die no matter where the deaths take place, reported this week that a total of 1,701 county residents have died of COVID. That's an increase of three from data reported last week.

Statewide, a total of 48,271 people have died of COVID, an increase of 145 from data reported last week.

Hospitalizations

Hospitalizations of COVID patients in Berks decreased after having increased in each of the previous three weeks.

According to state data released Wednesday, there were 42 hospitalized patients in the county. That's down six from the previous week.

Of the hospitalized patients, two were in intensive care and one was on a ventilator. The number of intensive care patients was the same as last week, while the number on ventilators was down two.

Statewide there were 1,129 COVID patients hospitalized, down eight from the number reported last week.

Vaccinations

—The number of fully vaccinated individuals in Berks was 258,247, an increase of 444.

—The number of individuals to receive a bivalent booster dose since Sept. 2 is 39,927, an increase of 3,045.