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Luzerne County’s new coronavirus cases dropped last week, but hospitalizations remained at a record pandemic high, according to the state’s latest early warning dashboard update.
The county’s average daily COVID-19 hospitalizations were 179.6 the week ending Jan. 27, an increase of 0.9 from the prior week’s 178.7, it said.
In comparison, the past high was an average daily 130.6 a year ago in the week ending Jan. 21, 2021, prior published state dashboard reports said.
Statewide, residents who are unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated account for 85% of reported COVID-19 hospitalizations, the state health department said.
Of the county residents hospitalized last week, an average 15.3 were on ventilators each day, or 0.7 more than the count two weeks ago, said the state health department’s report posted at www.health.pa.gov.
There were 2,277 new cases in the county last week, or an encouraging decrease of 989 from the prior week’s 3,266 new cases, it said.
As a result, the county’s incidence rate, or number of cases per 100,000 residents, was lowered from 1,028.9 two weeks ago to 717.4 last week.
The county’s positivity rate, or the percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results, dropped from 33.6% two weeks ago to a new 27.6%.
In the remaining dashboard statistic, the percentage of hospital visits tied to coronavirus-like illnesses in the county decreased from 1% two weeks ago to 0.9% last week, it said.
Both the county’s incidence and positivity rates are higher than the statewide averages.
State numbers
The state had decreases in all early warning benchmark categories last week.
There were 71,248 new COVID-19 cases throughout the state last week, or 34,555 less than the prior week’s 105,803 new cases, the dashboard said.
That cut the state’s incidence rate from 826.5 to 556.5 over the two weeks.
The state’s positivity rate also decreased from 31% to a new 25.4% last week, it said.
Coronavirus hospitalizations went from an average daily 7,128.3 two weeks ago to 5,985.3 last week — a reduction of 1,143.
An average daily 595.7 hospitalized patients were on ventilators last week, or 99 less than the previous week, it said.
Finally, ER visits dropped from 1.3% to 1%.
Vaccines
A total 191,993 county residents have receive all required initial COVID-19 vaccination shots, or 63.8% of the 300,742 eligible residents.
That’s an increase of 1,440 since Jan. 21, according to the state health department’s vaccination dashboard at health.pa.gov.
Of those already fully vaccinated in the county, 90,320 have obtained an additional booster shot since Aug. 13, which is an increase of 2,760 since Jan. 21.
Another 26,927 county residents are partially vaccinated because they did not yet receive both required initial doses, the dashboard said.
Pediatric vaccines
A total 4,425 county children ages 5 to 11 have received both doses required for full initial vaccination since Nov. 2. This is an increase of 343 since Jan. 21.
Another 1,426 county children in this age group are partially vaccinated, the dashboard said.
Statewide, 216,193 children in the age group are now fully vaccinated, while another 283,450 have received the first shot, it said.
Vaccination gender/age
In the county, 66.9% of females have received all required doses for initial vaccination, the dashboard said.
The percentage of county males fully vaccinated: 58.8%.
A breakdown of county residents fully vaccinated in different age groups also is presented in the dashboard, starting with those ages 10 to 14, reported at 35.2%.
The highest vaccination rate — 88.4% — is for those 75 to 79.
Other age range vaccination percentages: 85 and older (74.9%); 80 to 84 (83.6%); 70 to 74 (88%); 65 to 69 (86.4%); 60 to 64 (79.5%); 55 to 59 (74.2%); 50 to 54 (69.9%); 45 to 49 (63%); 40 to 44 (69.9%); 35 to 39 (62.7%); 30 to 34 (57.5%); 25 to 29 (48.5%); 20 to 24 (54.4%); and 15 to 19 (52.5%).
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.