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Luzerne County’s coronavirus hospitalizations rose again this week, according to the latest state early warning dashboard update Friday.
An average daily 58.4 county residents were hospitalized for COVID-19 this week ending Thursday, which is eight more than last week’s 50.4, said the state health department’s statistics posted at www.health.pa.gov.
For context, the county’s average daily hospitalizations were 3.3 in the week ending July 22 and 130.6 in mid-January.
Of those hospitalized this week, an average daily 6.3 were on ventilators, or one more than last week.
The percentage of hospital visits tied to coronavirus-like illnesses also increased in the county, from 0.8% last week to 1.8% this week.
In a positive development, the county had a slight decrease in new coronavirus cases this week.
There were 665 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the county this week, or 24 less than last week’s 689 additional cases.
As a result, the county’s incidence rate, or number of cases per 100,000 residents, decreased from 217.1 last week to 209.5 this week, the dashboard said.
The county’s positivity rate, or the percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results, is now 10.1% compared to 10.9% last week.
State view
Hospitalizations also increased statewide to an average daily 2,458.9, an increase of 191.8 compared to last week’s 2,267.1.
The average daily number of hospitalized patients on ventilators rose from 278.9 last week to 306.4 this week, the dashboard said.
Statewide, new cases decreased from 25,478 last week to 25,134 this week, lowering the incidence rate to 196.3.
Remaining the same were the state’s 8.9% positivity rate and ER visits, reported at 1.6%, it said.
Vaccinations
Most people who are hospitalized or died from COVID-19 are unvaccinated, the state health department said.
As of Friday, 168,379 county residents were fully vaccinated, or 59.4% of the 283,657 population estimated to be eligible, according to the state’s online vaccine dashboard at health.pa.gov.
This is an increase of 1,732 from the 166,647 county residents fully vaccinated one week ago, when the percentage was 58.7% of those eligible.
Coronavirus vaccines are only available to those over age 11 at this time.
Luzerne County continues to rank 11th among Pennsylvania counties for its percentage of eligible residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the state vaccine dashboard said. There are 67 counties in the state, although Philadelphia is not part of the state statistics.
Boosters
The state also has started reporting the number of residents who received COVID-19 booster shots since Aug. 13. That number is 3,421 in the county and 75,146 statewide.
Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that moderately to severely immunocompromised people who are fully vaccinated with Pfizer and Moderna receive an additional dose of vaccine, the state health department said.
In addition, new guidance issued by the FDA and CDC now allows a Pfizer booster shot for long-term care facility residents, those age 65 and older and residents 18 to 64 with jobs or underlying medical conditions that put them at higher risk for exposure or serious illness from COVID-19. These boosters are available starting six months after the second Pfizer dose.
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.