Westmoreland County reports 92 new covid cases, 5 deaths
Feb. 18—Despite an increase in new cases from yesterday, Westmoreland County continues to see an overall decline in its new case average.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 92 new cases of coronavirus Thursday. It's the 15th straight day the county's new case count was in double digits. The last time that happened was from Oct. 23-Nov. 7 (16 days).
Of the latest cases, 62 of those new cases were confirmed through 312 new PCR tests. Officials said 30 cases were listed as probable. Health officials define a probable case as one in which a patient has a positive viral antigen test or covid symptoms with a "high-risk exposure" to someone who has been confirmed to have coronavirus.
The county's seven-day average ticked up by one to 76, but it remains 10% lower than on Feb. 1 (84) and 57% lower than one month ago (175).
On Thursday, the state's health department reported five new covid-related deaths in the county for a total of 657 since the pandemic began.
Death numbers have also been on the decline. So far in February, the state has reported 52 covid-related deaths in the county. By Jan. 18, there were 112 deaths reported; by Dec. 18, there were 138.
State health officials report that 131,520 county residents have received at least one dose of a covid vaccine, while 12,448 individuals have received both shots.
According to Thursday's update on the Open Data PA website, there are 118 Westmoreland County residents hospitalized for covid-19. Of those, seven are in intensive care units and eight on a ventilator.
Since the pandemic began last year, there have been 26,132 cases among Westmoreland County residents, with 18,586 of them confirmed positive through PCR tests and 7,546 categorized as probable.
Chris Pastrick is a Tribune-Review digital producer. You can contact Chris at 412-320-7898, cpastrick@triblive.com or via Twitter .
