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On the positive side, Luzerne County has started reversing the latest rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations that began in March.

However, its coronavirus cases, positivity rate, ventilator use and emergency room visits all continued increasing in the state health department’s latest early warning dashboard reading posted at <a href="https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Monitoring-Dashboard.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.health.pa.go</a><a href="https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Monitoring-Dashboard.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">v</a>.

An average daily 45.1 county residents were hospitalized for the coronavirus the week ending April 15, or 8.9 less than the previous week’s average daily 54 residents.

The latest wave of steady growth since March did not reach mid-January’s high of 130.6 residents hospitalized.

Despite progress with last week’s reversal, the county’s current hospitalizations are still well above the lows of last summer. In June, for example, there were an average 7.3 residents in the hospital.

Cases

There were 778 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the county last week — an increase of 101 compared to the 677 logged the week ending April 8.

For comparison, there were 1,452 new cases in the county the last week of December. By early March, the number had dropped to 310 before climbing again.

Flashing back to the week ending July 2, the county had only 44 new cases.

Because more residents tested positive again last week, the county’s incidence rate — the number of cases per 100,000 residents — jumped from 213.3 to 245.1.

Positivity rate

The county’s positivity rate, or the percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results, increased from 10.8% two weeks ago and is now 11.6%.

How does this rank among the state’s 67 counties?

Sixteen counties have higher rates, while the remaining 50 are lower, analysis of the state report shows.

The counties with higher rates: Armstrong, 14.7%; Bedford, 12.9%; Berks, 12%; Bradford, 15.9%; Carbon, 12.7%; Clearfield, 12.8%; Clinton, 16%; Columbia, 12.4%; Lebanon, 11.8%; McKean, 12.1%; Monroe, 16.5%; Perry, 13.4%; Pike, 13.7%; Schuylkill, 12.6%; Susquehanna, 16.1%; and Wyoming, 21%.

Statewide, the positivity rate is 9.6%, which was a slight increase from the prior week’s 9.5%.

Other benchmarks

The number of hospitalized county residents on ventilators increased from an average daily 1.1 to 2.1 over the two-week period.

In the remaining benchmark statistic, the percentage of hospital visits tied to coronavirus-like illnesses went from 0.7% two weeks ago to 0.9% last week.

Vaccinations

Based on the latest figures, 83,390 county residents are now fully vaccinated.

Another 37,720 county residents are partially vaccinated because they received one of two required doses.

Residents 16 and older are able to be vaccinated.

The latest U.S. Census projections can be applied to get a general sense of the population not vaccinated to date.

Approximately 255,000 county residents are over 18 based on projections for 2019.

Putting Luzerne County’s latest coronavirus figures in perspective