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After weeks of decline, coronavirus cases have started inching back up in Luzerne County and statewide, according to the latest early warning benchmark reading.
				The county had 372 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the week ending March 18 &mdash; an increase of 62 from the prior week&rsquo;s 310 additional cases.
				As a result, the county&rsquo;s incidence rate, or cases per 100,000 residents, rose from 97.7 to 117.2 over the two-week period.
				Another number in the weekly report is the positivity rate, or percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results.
				The county&rsquo;s rate jumped from 6% two weeks ago to 7.4% last week.
				Hospitalizations also increased slightly. An average daily 36.6 county residents were hospitalized for COVID-19 last week, or 3.3 more than the previous week&rsquo;s average daily 33.3 residents.
				Also increasing was the percentage of hospital visits tied to coronavirus-like illnesses, which went from 0.2% two weeks ago to 0.6% last week, according to the state health department report posted at <a href="https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Monitoring-Dashboard.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.health.pa.gov</a>.
				There was one bright spot in the sixth benchmark reading. The average daily number of hospitalized county coronavirus patients on ventilators dropped from 4.6 to 3.3 over the two weeks.
				In a Monday release about the latest dashboard report, state Gov. Tom Wolf described slight increases in new cases and the positivity rate statewide as &ldquo;still concerning.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;As more and more Pennsylvanians are getting vaccinated, we must not forget to follow the mitigation measures still in place,&rdquo; Wolf said. &ldquo;As the weather gets warm, please remember to wear a mask, practice social distance and wash your hands frequently as the virus still has a presence in our communities.&rdquo;
				The state had 14,182 new confirmed cases last week &mdash; an increase of 1,380 over the 12,802 additional cases logged the week of March 5 to 11.
				That pushed up the incidence rate from 100 to 110.8.
				Meanwhile, the state&rsquo;s positivity rate rose from 5.7% to a new 6.5%.
				Both hospitalizations and ventilator use decreased slightly statewide. On average, 1,479.2 residents were hospitalized statewide, or 35.4 less than the previous week. Of those hospitalized, 167.6 were on ventilators last week, compared to 180.3 two weeks ago.
				Emergency room visits for coronavirus symptoms remained the same over the two weeks: 0.5%.
				Luzerne County remains in the highest &ldquo;substantial&rdquo; level of community transmission along with 24 other counties.
				The counties in the substantial category in addition to Luzerne, according to the state: Berks, Bradford, Bucks, Carbon, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Franklin, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Lycoming, Monroe, Montgomery, Montour, Northampton, Northumberland, Philadelphia, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne, Wyoming and York
				Five counties are in the low transmission level, and the remaining 37 are in the moderate one.
				Of the 67 counties, 21 have positivity rates lower than 5%, the state said. No counties have rates exceeding 20%.

Coronavirus cases, hospitalizations rise in Luzerne County