Centre County Remains at Medium COVID-19 Community Level

Centre County stayed at the medium community level for COVID-19 for the second consecutive week, while the number of Pennsylvania counties at the high level ticked up, according to the Centers for Disease Control’s latest update on Thursday night.

Statewide, 14 of the commonwealth’s 67 counties are at the high level, four more than last week. Those include neighboring Clearfield, Huntingdon and Mifflin counties.

Centre is among 36 counties at the medium level [-4], while 17 are at the low level.

At the medium level, the CDC recommends that individuals at high risk for severe illness consider wearing a mask indoors in public and taking additional precautions such as staying 6 feet away from others, avoiding crowded and poorly ventilated spaces. Anyone who has symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should also wear a mask, according to the CDC. Masks should be worn on public transportation, as well.

Hospitalizations and cases

Community levels measure new cases and new COVID-19 hospital admissions and percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients over a seven-day period. For a county that has fewer than 200 new cases per 100,000 people in a week, to be at the medium level requires 10-19.9 COVID hospital admissions per 100,000 and/or a seven-day average of less than 10-14.9% of hospital beds occupied by COVID inpatients.

Centre County had a case rate of 161.96 per 100,000 people, up from 138.56 last week, and 11.9 new COVID admissions per 100,000, down from 12.3, with 7.3% of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 inpatients, up from 6.5%.

Mount Nittany Medical Center had 17 COVID-19 inpatients on Friday, according to its inpatient dashboard, with none in intensive care or on ventilators. The patients range in age from 48 to 98. For the week of Aug. 13-19, Mount Nittany has had an average daily COVID inpatient census of 13.4, down from 15.4 a week earlier.

As of the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s latest weekly update on Wednesday, 1,278 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized statewide, 23 fewer than a week ago, with 140 in intensive care [+9] and 40 on ventilators [-14].

Centre County added 263 reported new cases over the last week, a 15% increase from the previous seven days, according to DOH data. The county has had a total of 39,556 COVID-19 cases (35,150 confirmed and 4,406 probable) since March 2020.

The county’s seven-day rolling average for new cases of 38 is up from 32 a week ago.

Pennsylvania registered 21,507 reported new positives over the last week, a 4% increase from a week ago. The rolling seven-day average of 3072.4 is up from 2,946.5 the prior week.

The statewide case total since the start of the pandemic is now 3,147,474.

Deaths

DOH recorded one new death attributed to the virus among Centre County residents in the last week, bringing the total to 363.

With 120 new COVID-19 deaths identified by the Pennsylvania death registry in the last week, the statewide total is now 46,494.

Positivity rate

Centre County’s PCR testing positivity rate for the week of Aug. 10-16 was 18%, up from 17% the previous seven days, according to the DOH early warning monitoring dashboard. The rate was the 33rd lowest among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.

The statewide positivity rate was 17%, down from 17.2% the previous seven days.

Vaccinations

As of Wednesday morning, 97,380 people in Centre County are fully vaccinated, an increase of 88 since Aug. 10, and 15,221 are partially covered [+74]. First booster doses have been administered to 53,943 county residents [+189] and 12,620 have received a second booster [+191].

Among the county’s entire population, 72.4% have received at least one dose, 61.1% are fully vaccinated and 54.3% are fully vaccinated with a booster, according to the CDC. Among adult residents, 77.3% have received at least one dose, 65.3% are fully vaccinated and 56.2% have received a booster.

Statewide, 79.8% of adults and 70.4% of the total population are fully vaccinated, while at least one booster dose has been administered to 47% of adults and 44.5% of the total population.

Vaccination appointments are available through pharmacies and providers listed at vaccines.gov.

Centre County’s cases by zip code:

*Note: Changes are in brackets. Specific numbers for zip codes with 1-4 cases are redacted by the health department. Cases are not always immediately assigned zip codes.

16801 (State College): 9,638 confirmed [+50], 1,360 probable [+8]

16823 (Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap): 6,911 confirmed [+49], 615 probable [+8]

16803 (State College): 3,963 confirmed [+30], 805 probable [+5]

16866 (Philipsburg): 2,371 confirmed [+21], 318 probable [+6]

16802 (University Park): 1,934 confirmed [+2], 310 probable

16870 (Port Matilda): 1,508 confirmed [+17], 196 probable [+3]

16841 (Howard): 1,199 confirmed [+6], 109 probable [+3]

16828 (Centre Hall): 922 confirmed [+10], 89 probable [+2]

16827 (Boalsburg): 922 confirmed [+9], 114 probable

16875 (Spring Mills): 727 confirmed [+6], 80 probable [-1]

16844 (Julian): 581 confirmed [+4], 56 probable

16845 (Karthaus): 533 confirmed [+3], 34 probable

16877 (Warrior’s Mark): 323 confirmed [+1], 30 probable

16853 (Milesburg): 308 confirmed [+3], 21 probable [+2]

16874 (Snow Shoe): 305 confirmed [+2], 40 probable

16826 (Blanchard): 272 confirmed [+1], 16 probable

16865 (Pennsylvania Furnace): 260 confirmed [+1], 28 probable

16820 (Aaronsburg): 204 confirmed, 29 probable [+1]

16854 (Millheim): 199 confirmed [+1], 17 probable

16829 (Clarence): 197 confirmed [+2], 25 probable

16851 (Lemont): 191 confirmed [+2], 28 probable

16872 (Rebersburg): 184 confirmed [+2], 17 probable

16868 (Pine Grove Mills): 119 confirmed, 13 probable

16859 (Moshannon): 106 confirmed [+1], 6 probable

16677 (Sandy Ridge): 99 confirmed [+4], 5 probable

16832 (Coburn): 94 confirmed, 10 probable

16835 (Fleming): 66 confirmed, 8 probable

16856 (Mingoville): 54 confirmed [+1], 10 probable

16852 (Madisonburg): 54 confirmed, 5 probable

16882 (Woodward): 46 confirmed [+2], 5 confirmed

16863 (Orviston): 22 confirmed

16804 (State College): 21 confirmed, 1-4 confirmed

16805 (State College): 1-4 confirmed

Cases among Centre County’s bordering counties 

Blair: 32,023 [+272] Medium Community Level

Clearfield: 21,399 [+207] High Community Level

Mifflin: 13,331 [+72] High Community Level

Union: 12,574 [+50] Medium Community Level

Huntingdon: 12,457 [+84] High Community Level

Clinton: 9,975 [+54] Medium Community Level