Covid deaths in Pennsylvania rise, cases remain level

Pennsylvania on Thursday added 198 coronavirus deaths, bringing its total number of deaths to 21,303 since the pandemic began in March.

In latest report, 187 deaths are from January, 11 are from December. January (3,520) has surpassed April (3,395) to become the second deadliest month for covid. December has the most at 6,280.

The state Department of Health also reported 6,036 additional cases to bring the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 824,405.

In a release, the department said Thursday’s case counts included backlogged antigen testing data from urgent care centers. According to the state, 1,214 of the newly identified cases had their specimens collected over a week ago.

The state’s seven-day average is at 5,082 cases, and the state’s seven-day total cases is 35,571. The seven-day average has trended down for more than two weeks, though Thursday’s figure is a bit higher than Wednesday’s (5,028).

Of the new cases reported, Allegheny County added 358 new cases bringing their total cases to 68,445, while Westmoreland saw 88 new cases bringing their total cases to 24,456.

Here’s the total number of new cases for the other counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania: Armstrong (24), Beaver (74), Butler (77), Fayette (38), Indiana (17), Somerset (24) and Washington (81).

York County had the most new cases in the state with 572, followed by Philadelphia (495), Cumberland (447) and Dauphin (430).

The state noted that more than 3.6 million people have tested negative for the virus.

According to the state, there are 62,483 resident cases of covid-19 in nursing and personal care homes, and 11,861 cases among employees, for a total of 74,344 at 1,536 facilities.

Out of the total number of deaths, 11,170 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities.

Approximately 22,653 of the total cases in the state are among health care workers.

According to the state’s covid-19 dashboard, 3,691 state residents are hospitalized for covid (down 77 from Wednesday), 753 are in intensive care units and 435 are on ventilators.