Pennsylvania reports over 2,000 new coronavirus cases
With 2,063 new cases, Pennsylvania on Thursday reported its highest number of single-day cases of coronavirus since the pandemic started in March. The state also reported 30 new deaths attributed to the coronavirus.
The new cases bring the total number of cases in Pennsylvania to 188,360. October has seen all but two days of over 1,000 cases reported. The seven-day average of cases is 1,589, with the seven-day total of new cases at 10,840.
While acknowledging the high number of cases Thursday, state officials said an issue with data this week prevented some of the lab results from being properly reported. Some of the cases being reported Thursday should have been counted as part of the positive test results reported Wednesday, according to the state. However, they did not say how many cases were mistakenly attributed.
The biggest jump in cases Thursday were in Philadelphia County with 237. Allegheny and Westmoreland counties followed with increases of 133 cases each. Luzerne County reported an increase of 112 cases and Delaware County saw 109 new cases.
The department stated that 231,483 tests were administered within the past seven days between Oct. 15-21 with 10,375 positive cases.
More than 2.3 million people in the state have been tested for the virus. The overall positivity rate is 7.9%.
The state Department of Health reported 30 new deaths, all from October, attributed to coronavirus after posting 29 on Wednesday and 33 on Tuesday. The state total stands at 8,592.
The state dashboard shows that there are 1,042 people currently hospitalized with 110 on ventilators.
According to the state, there are 24,990 resident cases of covid-19 in nursing and personal care homes, and 5,436 cases among employees, for a total of 30,426 at 1,036 distinct facilities.
Out of the total number of deaths, 5,670 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities.
Approximately 11,846 of the total cases in the state are among health care workers.
The Department of Health advises that if people have or think they have covid-19, they should stay home and keep away from others.
Frank Carnevale is the TribLive multimedia editor. He started at the Trib in 2016 and has been part of several news organizations, including the Providence Journal and Orlando Sentinel. He can be reached at fcarnevale@triblive.com.
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