Westmoreland County sees slowing of additional covid cases

Westmoreland County has seen a decline in covid cases since the start of the year. While January had 24 days with over 100 cases reported, February has only seen two days with reported covid cases above 100 (on Feb. 2 and Feb. 3).

The county on Wednesday continued that trend with a reported 68 additional covid cases — 28 confirmed, 40 probable — according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The total number of cases in Westmoreland County stands at 26,497 — 18,758 confirmed, 7,739 probable — since the first cases were reported last spring.

There have been 85,806 people in the county who have tested negative for the virus.

The county’s seven-day average is 65 cases and the county’s seven-day case total is 457. These figures are lower than last Wednesday when the seven-day average was 75 and seven-day case total was 524.

The state Department of Health defines a probable case as one in which a patient has “a positive serology (antibody) test and either covid-19 symptoms or a high-risk exposure” to someone who has been confirmed to have coronavirus.

There were two additional covid-related deaths reported on Wednesday, according to state data.

The total number of covid deaths in the county stands at 668 since the pandemic started. There have been 62 reported deaths in February.

According to the state’s covid-19 dashboard, 114 Westmoreland County residents are hospitalized for covid-19 (down one from Tuesday), two of them are in intensive care units and tw0 are on ventilators.