Pennsylvania reports 5,100 more coronavirus cases, 140 deaths

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story contained incorrect information about the Federal Pharmacy Partnership.

Pennsylvania on Saturday reported 5,191 new coronavirus cases, as hospitalizations and case counts continue to trend downward in the Keystone State.

The new data bring the total cases to 839,239.

That’s a jump of about 39,000 more cases than this time last week. The week before, the weekly increase was just above 36,000.

Officials said nearly 109,000 of the total cases are considered 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 state also reported 140 new deaths. Of the 140 deaths newly reported Saturday, 137 are from January and three are from December.

The total number of covid-19 deaths in Pennsylvania is 21,602 — just under 1,600 more fatalities than last week (20,609).

Health officials say there are 3,586 patients hospitalized in the state, representing 334 fewer patients than at this time last week.

However, officials say this number is nearly double the amount of covid patients in the hospital last spring. They also noted that the 14-day average is nearly 3,700 more than the end of September.

Of the new number, 699 patients are in an intensive care unit — 104 fewer than at this time last week and 311 fewer than two weeks ago. These numbers show 1 of 5, or about 20%, of hospitalized patients are in an ICU.

There are currently 451 patients on ventilators.

Officials say positivity rate in the state during the past week has decreased by 9.3%. It was five percentage points two weeks ago.

More than 3.6 million people in Pennsylvania have tested negative for the virus out of a total of about 4.4 million people in the state who have been tested.

The overall positivity rate is around 16%.

According to the state Health Department, the most severe cases are seen in patients over the age of 65. This group accounts for the largest age demographic for hospitalizations and deaths.

In nursing and personal care homes, there have been 63,059 cases in residents and 12,015 in employees.

There have been 11,363 deaths at nursing and personal care homes. These deaths account for about 52% of the state’s total. About 1,543 nursing facilities have been affected by the virus.

Of the total coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania, 22,901 stem from health care workers.

State officials said 941,412 of covid-19 vaccines will have been administered across the state through the end of Saturday. In reality, 757,766 people will have been vaccinated in the state — mainly health care workers, first responders and the elderly.

Officials said of that total vaccinations, 574,120 people have received the first dose out of the two-shot vaccine, which makes them partially covered. And 183,646 people have received both doses.

They noted that this total include vaccines administered through CVS and Walgreens as part of the Federal Pharmacy Partnership.

Mask-wearing is required in all businesses in the state, an action that health officials say is critical preventing the spread of the virus.