Bucks County's COVID-19 Positivity Rate Keeps Climbing

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — The Bucks County Department of Health said Friday that the county positivity rate was 10.7 percent between Dec. 2 and Dec. 9, an increase of 1.2 percent from the prior week.

These numbers are comparable to mid-January last year, before vaccines were widely available to the U.S. population. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the majority of positive COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania over this past year have occurred in unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated residents.

Bucks County remains an area of high transmission, as designated by the CDC, while its COVID-19 numbers continue to climb.

Let's get into the numbers: the county reported 1,485 positive cases last week, an increase of 204 from the prior week. That week, numbers had increased by 353 from the week before, showing a dramatic rise in cases so far this month.

The health department said 199 cases were in children 11 and under, and 135 cases were in children between the ages of 12 and 18.

Eleven Bucks County residents died of COVID-19 last week according to the latest data, with four of those deaths reported late from prior weeks.

On Saturday, 108 patients were in the hospital for COVID-19, an increase of 32 from the prior week. Thirteen of those patients were on ventilators; last week, six patients were on ventilators.

Vaccination numbers in the county also increased last week, with 5,283 residents receiving their second shots.

The county health department said 358,842 residents were fully vaccinated, having received at least two doses of the vaccine, as of Saturday.

In other Bucks County COVID-19 news, at least five local school districts have gone mask-optional after a statewide mask order was overturned Friday. The omicron variant is also suspected to have shown up in multiple Pennsylvania COVID-19 cases.

Interested residents can find a full-list of vaccine providers in Bucks County and locations where COVID vaccines are being offered on Bucks County’s Coronavirus Testing/Vaccination Information page.

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This article originally appeared on the Doylestown Patch