Infection rates fall, one new COVID-19 death reported in region

Randy Griffith, The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.
·2 min read

May 28—Infection rates for COVID-19 continue to fall across the state but edged higher in some of the region's counties, the Department of Health reported Friday.

The state's Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard showed 3.8% of all COVID-19 tests came back as positive over the past seven days.

That's down from 4.5% positivity over the previous seven days.

Positivity rates under 5% are considered low risk for community transmission, the department said.

Cambria, Somerset, Blair and Westmoreland counties saw positivity fall, while Bedford, Indiana, Clearfield and Centre counties had small increases.

* Cambria's positivity rate was 3.5% this week, down from 4.1% for the previous seven days.

* Somerset had 4.8% positivity, down from 5.2%.

* Blair 5.3% positivity, down from 6.7%.

* Westmoreland had 3.4% positivity, down from 4.8%

* Bedford had 8.3% positivity, up from 8.1%.

* Indiana had 5.9% positivity, up from 5.7%

* Clearfield County had 6.1% positivity, up from 5.9%.

* Centre County had 3.9% positivity, up from 3.7%.

There were 1,007 new cases of COVID-19 statewide on Friday, bringing Pennsylvania's total to 1,200,543.

All eight counties in the region recorded fewer than 30 new cases.

One Westmoreland County death was the region's only new fatality among 24 recorded Friday statewide. It brings the state total to 27,187 deaths attributed to COVID-19.

Westmoreland had 24 new cases, Cambria and Blair had 20 each, Bedford had 17, Clearfield and Centre had seven each and Somerset had three new cases.

Acting Secretary of Health Allison Beam on Friday credited COVID-19 mitigation efforts and flu shots for an unusually mild influenza season.

There were 3,664 laboratory-confirmed flu cases and 21 flu-associated deaths statewide for the 2020-2021 flu season.

"As we end the flu season this year with fewer than 4,000 cases, I want to emphasize that this is one of the mildest flu seasons on record for Pennsylvania," Beam said. "The previous season was higher than usual with more than 130,900 cases of flu. That is a stark difference from where we ended in 2021.

"The low flu activity, in part, is a testament to effective COVID-19 mitigation efforts that also prevent the flu, since the two infectious diseases spread the same way. In addition, a record number of individuals got their flu vaccine this season."