Report: Hospitalization rate for COVID-19 in Luzerne County relatively low

Mark Guydish, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
·2 min read

Aug. 4—COVID-19 may have hit some unsettling highs and rare lows in Luzerne County throughout the pandemic, but a new report that looks at the rate of hospitalizations since the beginning in March 2020 through last December shows our county, overall, has closely mirrored the state rate. Data for the last six months of last year show the county rate was relatively low compared to both the state and neighboring counties.

The report from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council includes the rate of hospitalizations per 10,000 residents for three month periods, for the state and all counties — though data for some counties in certain months was so low the report provides no numbers.

The rate of hospitalizations in Luzerne County started out higher than the state rate from March through June of 2020, hitting 16.3 compared to the state's 14.5. But it dropped dramatically in the following three months, to 2.2 per 10,000 compared to 5.4 for the state. That is the lowest the rate got for Luzerne County since the pandemic started.

The local rate remained below the state rate until the period of January through March 2021, when Luzerne County had 27.9 hospitalizations per 10,000 residents compared to 26.3 statewide. But that was the last time the county outpaced the state.

In the last six months, the rate has been climbing locally. It was 8.6 hospitalizations per 10,000 in the three months of July-September this year, but climbed to a new high in the PHC4 data for the months of October through December of last year, hitting 28.4.

Despite the climb, Luzerne County's rate for the last three months was lower than the rates of five of seven adjacent counties. Only Lackawanna and Monroe Counties had lower rates, 22.9 and 27.3 respectively.

The report also gave some statewide data:

—The in-hospital mortality rate was highest in April 2020 at 19.2%. Other mortality rate peaks occurred August 2020 (10.4%), January 2021 (13.8%), June 2021 (10.6%) and October 2021 (14.9%).

—In the last three months of 2021, 10.9% of hospitalized patients required mechanical ventilation, and 14.6% died in the hospital. The average length of stay was 8.2 days.

—In the same three-month period, older residents — especially age 55 and older — had higher rates of hospitalization. Higher rates of in-hospital mortality also occurred among older patients, particularly those 65 and older.

Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish