Poconos sees fluctuation in COVID cases as Pennsylvania cases surge 53.3%

Mike Stucka and Brian Myszkowski, Pocono Record
·6 min read
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New coronavirus cases leaped in Pennsylvania in the week ending Sunday, rising 53.3% as 18,900 cases were reported. The previous week had 12,326 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Pennsylvania ranked 41st among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States increased 11.8% from the week before, with 800,077 cases reported. With 3.85% of the country's population, Pennsylvania had 2.36% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 38 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

Johns Hopkins University has been getting data on an erratic schedule from Pennsylvania, skewing week-to-week comparisons.

Monroe County reported 279 cases and one death in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 165 cases and one death. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 40,312 cases and 541 deaths.

Within Pennsylvania, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Montour County with 247 cases per 100,000 per week; Warren County with 222; and Franklin County with 210. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

Adding the most new cases overall were Philadelphia County, with 2,185 cases; Allegheny County, with 2,053 cases; and Montgomery County, with 1,405. Weekly case counts rose in 63 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Allegheny, Philadelphia and Bucks counties.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

Across Pennsylvania, cases fell in four counties, with the best declines in Armstrong County, with 49 cases from 57 a week earlier; in Wyoming County, with 10 cases from 17; and in Wayne County, with 34 cases from 40.

In Pennsylvania, 109 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 77 people were reported dead.

A total of 3,006,257 people in Pennsylvania have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 45,766 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 87,843,561 people have tested positive and 1,017,848 people have died.

NEPA sees case count fluctuations, PCR increases in June

End-of-June figures for COVID-19 cases in Monroe County have seen some minor increases, and while June 29's 41 reported cases was well above June 20's low of 14, overall figures fall well under a spring high of 99 cases reported on May 18.

Pike's daily case counts have shown some fluctuation with an overall drop from the month's early figures, though the mid-month's numbers, mostly situated in the single digits, have increased into the teens as of June's end.

Daily cases in Wayne appear to have declined throughout the month, with a high point of 23 on June 1, and since the middle of the month, those figures have barely reached the teens.

Carbon's counts varied across June, with a few reports of 20-plus cases in a day, though the last week of the month's figures rarely crossed into the teens.

Though Lackawanna has not seen a high into the hundreds since June 1's 112 reported cases, end of the month figures have been escalating into the 40s.

The Department of Health's COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard has shown increases in nearly every metric in Monroe for June 23 through June 29 over the previous week: confirmed cases escalated from 185 to 212, the PCR positivity rate went up from 15.1% to 17.8%, incidence rate per 100,000 people increased from 108.7 to 124.5, average daily hospitalizations jumped from 6.7 to 9.1, and the percentage of emergency department visits due to COVID-like illnesses went from 0.5% to 0.7%. Average daily patients on ventilators in Monroe remained stable at zero.

Pike saw similar escalations across several fields, with confirmed cases rising from 43 to 56, PCR positivity rate went from 9.5% to 13.9%, and the incidence rate per 100,000 people increased from 77 to 100.3 during the same time period. On the contrary, the percentage of emergency department visits due to COVID-like illnesses went down from 1.2% to zero.

Carbon's confirmed case count increased from 54 to 62, while their PCR positivity rate went up from 10.9% to 14.2%, average daily patients on ventilators went from zero to 0.4, the incidence rate per 100,000 people increased from 84.1 to 96.6, and the percentage of emergency department visits due to COVID-like illnesses went from 0.5% to 0.7% Average daily hospitalizations dropped from 2.9 to 2.7.

Wayne noted several decreases in statistics across the board at the end of June, with confirmed cases dropping from 28 to 25, PCR positivity going from 9.6% to 7.5%, and the incidence rate per 100,000 people lowering from 54.5 to 48.7. Average daily patients on ventilators stayed at zero, and average daily hospitalizations remained at 2, though the percent of emergency room visits due to COVID-like illnesses went up from 0.3% to 0.6%.

Lackawanna experienced a mixed week, with confirmed cases remaining level at 148 and the incidence rate per 100,000 people staying at 70.6. Average daily patients on ventilators dropped from 1.9 to 1, average daily hospitalizations went from 20.7 to 16.7, and the percent of emergency room visits to to COVID-like illnesses decreased from 0.7% to 0.6%. Lastly, the county's PCR positivity rate went up slightly from 8.2% to 9.3%.

>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

Pennsylvania's COVID-19 hospital admissions staying flat

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, July 3. Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:

  • Last week: 3,569

  • The week before that: 3,555

  • Four weeks ago: 3,836

Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:

  • Last week: 65,244

  • The week before that: 61,335

  • Four weeks ago: 56,288

Hospitals in 33 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 28 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 40 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.

The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.

Brian Myszkowski covers the COVID-19 pandemic in northeast Pennsylvania and is based at the Pocono Record. Reach him by emailing bmyszkowski@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Pocono Record: Northeast Pa. saw COVID case count fluctuations in June