Pa. records highest daily increase in coronavirus cases

Pennsylvania on Thursday eclipsed more than 7,000 new coronavirus cases in a single day for the first time.

The state reported a record 7,126 additional covid-19 cases and 116 new deaths. That brings the totals since the pandemic struck the state in March to 288,978 cases and 9,581 deaths.

In the past two days, the state has recorded 226 deaths. In the previous six days, there were 210 deaths.

Of the 116 newly reported deaths, 115 are from November and one is from June.

November is now the fifth-deadliest month in terms of covid deaths with 606 deaths, and there are still 11 days remaining in the month.

Philadelphia County reported the largest daily case increase with 1,056. Allegheny County was second highest followed by Bucks (390), Lancaster (368), Delaware (331) and Westmoreland (259).

Currently, there are 2,952 covid patients hospitalized statewide and 659 coronavirus patients in an intensive care unit. Most of the patients hospitalized are 65 or older, according to the state.

The 14-day average of hospitalized patients statewide has increased almost 1,700 since the end of September, according to the state.

There are 318 covid patients on ventilators, and 1,268 of the state’s 4,998 total ventilators are in use.

The number of tests administered between Nov. 12-18 was 389,594, with 38,484 positive cases, the state reported.

Of the new daily cases, 6,345 were confirmed. The daily PCR positive rate sat at 22.93%, and the overall positive test rate was 9.32%.

In nursing and personal care homes, there are 30,786 resident cases of covid-19, and 6,265 cases among employees, for a total of 36,589 at 1,184 facilities in 63 counties. Total deaths of residents in nursing or personal care facilities was 6,169.

About 13,786 of the total coronavirus cases are among health care workers, the state reported.