COVID hospitalizations surge in Berks and across Pennsylvania

Nov. 21—COVID-19 hospitalizations continued to rise in Berks to near a delta-variant surge record while across the state there are more people hospitalized than at any time in the delta surge.

The delta episode has continued through 19 weeks, by far the longest surge of the pandemic's 19 months.

Berks reached 85 patients in the Sunday update of the state Department of Health pandemic dashboard. Of them, 17 were in the intensive care units at Reading Hospital or Penn State Health St. Joseph hospital.

The update reflects COVID statistics at the end of the prior day, in this case Saturday.

The total patient count was up 10 from Friday's report with the ICU count down three from Friday. It's unclear how many patients have died and how many have improved.

The most patients hospitalized during the delta surge was 87 in early October. The ICU count of 20 on Friday was a delta record.

Those numbers are still less than half of the pandemic records from the heart of the winter surge in January.

Pennsylvania overall has been setting hospitalization records for the past three days, up to 3,097 total patients on Sunday, including 734 in the ICUs.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows Berks with 47 new COVID hospitalizations for the seven days ending Friday and Pennsylvania overall averaging 339 new COVID admissions daily.

There were two days in July when the Berks hospitals had no COVID patients.

At least two-thirds of the currently hospitalized patients in Berks are considered unvaccinated, recent data show, though that count also includes anyone with one shot of the two-dose vaccines and those whose vaccination status was not known.

Berks, Pa. cases

Berks had 352 new COVID cases and reinfections for a two-day update on Sunday. The average of 176 was down from last week when the top three days of the delta surge were set: 246, 209 and 206.

The Berks pandemic total of cases and reinfections reached 62,848. Statistics suggest that 1% are reinfections, though Pennsylvania isn't keeping a separate accounting of those.

The seven-day average was up to 193, a delta record.

The average smooths the uneven processing of test results. The dashboard update reflects the number of cases at the end of Saturday.

Across Pennsylvania, 11,841 more cases and reinfections were added for the pandemic, down slightly from last week, which also saw the top three days of the delta surge.

The pandemic case total was nearing 1.69 million.

Berks had nearly 3% of the new cases. The county's 429,000 residents are about 3.3% of the state population.

Weekly comparison

One needs look no further than the health department's Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard to see the acceleration of the pandemic in Berks and Pennsylvania.

Berks was a plus 65 in cases for the week ending Thursday over the prior week ending Nov. 11. The other statistics in the dashboard showed Berks at 206 infections per 100,000 residents and a positivity rate of 12.7%, both higher.

Pennsylvania saw an increase of 4,545 cases from week to week, with a new infection rate of 232 per 100,000 and a positivity rate of 11.7%, both much higher.

The statistics are based only on the results from the nasal swab test, the PCR, which is considered a confirmed case. All other tests are considered probables and do not figure into the weekly calculation, though they are part of the daily update.

Berks has a higher rate of probable cases and the county shows better in the Early Warning dashboard because of it.

Cases among children

COVID cases among children and youth were below record levels in the weekly update of that metric for Berks, but Pennsylvania overall had a record number.

The state's record keeping shows Berks with 47 cases among kids under age 5 and 234 among the 5-to-18 age group for a total of 281, down from 306 a week earlier.

Statewide, there were 1,336 new cases for young children and 7,456 in the older age group for a total of 8,792. That total blew past the prior weekly record by nearly 1,000 and was far ahead of the 7,385 from a week earlier, which had reversed a five-week downward trend.

The state began releasing data on COVID cases among juveniles on Aug. 16.

The cumulative Berks total after 12 weeks is 458 cases among preschoolers and 2,597 for the older age group for a total of 3,055.

Statewide, the cumulative state age group totals are 13,557 and 79,510, respectively, for a total of 93,067.

Berks had almost 3.2% of the state total of cases among juveniles for the most recent week. For the cumulative 12 weeks, it's nearly 3.3%.

Deaths

Berks had three COVID deaths among the 99 statewide in the latest dashboard update.

The total of Berks residents who have died in the pandemic increased to 1,189 and the state total overall increased to 32,924.

The county coroner's office reports deaths within Berks twice a week and that total remained at 1,129. Acting Coroner Jonn M. Hollenbach said the next report would be Wednesday.

Vaccinations

In COVID vaccinations, the state dashboard update:

—217,567: Fully inoculated Berks residents, up 375 over two days.

—25,924: Partially inoculated Berks residents, up 679.

—35,511: Berks residents who have received a booster shot or a third full dose for the immunocompromised, up 1,960.

—6.58 million: Fully inoculated Pa. residents

—1.03 million: Partially inoculated Pa. residents

—1.34 million: Pa. residents who have received a booster shot or a third full dose for the immunocompromised.

The CDC shows 240,526 Berks residents age 12 and older are fully vaccinated, which is 66.7% of the eligible population.

The same webpage shows the total of children age 5 to 11 with a first Pfizer shot up to nearly 2,900.

The CDC's accounting of vaccinations is the full picture on inoculations and includes the state's numbers and other shots given under federal auspices.

Boosters are available to all adults and are strongly recommended by health authorities due to the waning effectiveness of the initial shots.

COVID in Berks

352: new cases (two days)

62,848: pandemic total

193: seven-day average

1,189: deaths, state

1,129: deaths, coroner

240,526: fully vaccinated Berks residents