Pennsylvania records 313 additional covid deaths, 7,175 more cases

Pennsylvania’s Department of Health on Thursday reported 313 additional covid deaths and 7,175 cases.

With the day’s report, there have been 2,764 deaths counted this month, though not all the deaths occurred this month. Of the deaths counted this month 1,201 are from January, 1,547 from December, 12 are from November, one from October, two from August and one from May.

There have been 6,046 deaths in December, the most of any month.

The death toll for the state stands at 18,742 since the pandemic started in March.

The newly reported cases bring the total number of coronavirus cases to 748,564. The state’s seven-day average is at 7,175 cases and the state’s seven-day case total is 55,477. These figures are about 5% higher than a week ago.

Allegheny County recorded 499 new cases, bringing their total cases to 62,938, while Westmoreland saw 203 new cases for the day, bringing their total cases to 22,713.

Here’s the total number of newly reported cases for the other counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania: Armstrong (64), Beaver (89), Butler (147), Fayette (70), Indiana (38), Somerset (53) and Washington (105).

Philadelphia had the most new cases with 565, followed by Allegheny, Montgomery (472), York (388) and Lancaster (376).

The state noted that more than 3.4 million Pennsylvanians have tested negative for the virus.

According to the state, there are 58,577 resident cases of covid-19 in nursing and personal care homes, and 11,010 cases among employees, for a total of 69,587 at 1,507 distinct facilities.

Of the total number of deaths, 9,823 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities.

Approximately 21,217 of the total cases in the state are among health care workers.

State officials on Wednesday introduced a new program called to support long-term care facilities. The program, Regional Congregate Care Assistance Teams, replaces the Regional Response Health Collaborative program, a partnership between state agencies and health systems that expired at the end of 2020.

Officials said due to a shortage of federal funding, the new program is operating with less money and performing only “the most essential” functions than the previous program.

According to the state covid-19 dashboard, there are 4,980 people hospitalized with covid-19. Of that number, 1,013 patients are in an intensive care unit. The health department said most of the patients hospitalized are ages 65 or older, and most of the deaths have occurred in patients 65 or older.

The state vaccine dashboard shows that 321,404 partial doses and 52,125 full doses of the vaccines have been administered to residents of the commonwealth.