PA Coronavirus Positivity Rate Hits 'Concerning' Level Of 5%

Kara Seymour
Updated ·2 min read

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania's statewide positivity rate last week hit a concerning level of 5 percent, officials said. This comes as the state's total number of cases exceeded 200,000 on Wednesday.

Officials say Pennsylvania, like many states, is in the midst of a fall resurgence. Statewide, the percent positivity rate — the number of coronavirus tests taken that come back positive — has reached 5 percent. That's according to the most recent data available, released Monday but taken from Oct. 16-22. That data shows the rate increased from 4.2 percent the week before.

The World Health Organization has said positivity rates should be under 5 percent.

“Our percent positivity and incidence rate for the Commonwealth increased significantly in the midst of our fall resurgence,” Gov. Wolf said. “We cannot emphasize enough the importance of Pennsylvanians being united in taking actions to protect ourselves and others, such as wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, washing our hands and avoiding gatherings."

Nearly half of the state's counties now have concerning percent positivity levels, the Pennsylvania Department of Health said. The county with the highest positivity rate is Huntingdon (12.0 percent).

Other counties officials are closely watching include Bradford (11.2 percent), Lawrence (9.0 percent), Lebanon (8.7 percent), Westmoreland (8.4 percent), Perry (8.2 percent), Bedford (7.6 percent), Luzerne (7.5 percent), Schuylkill (7.5 percent), Tioga (7.2 percent), York (7.2 percent), Indiana (7.0 percent), Lackawanna (7.0 percent), Venango (7.0 percent), Mifflin (6.8 percent), Armstrong (6.7 percent), Berks (6.6 percent), Cumberland (6.6 percent), Montour (6.3 percent), Philadelphia (6.1 percent), Franklin (6.0 percent), Elk (5.9 percent), Washington (5.9 percent), Mercer (5.6 percent), Dauphin (5.5 percent), Susquehanna (5.5 percent), Blair (5.3 percent), Clinton (5.3 percent), Clarion (5.1 percent), Northumberland (5.1 percent).

The state reported 2,228 additional positive cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 200,674 cases. Of those, 77 percent of patients have recovered.

"Daily increases are now comparable with what we saw in April 2020," according to a statement from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Also Wednesday, there were 22 new deaths reported. There have now been a total of 8,718 total deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Pennsylvania. There are 1,187 people in Pennsylvania hospitalized due to the virus as of Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on the Across Pennsylvania Patch