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COVID-19 hospitalization rates were lower than the state rate in Luzerne County and all but two neighboring counties last year, from the onset of the pandemic in March through September, according to a new report.
				The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council released two briefs Wednesday looking at hospitalizations per 10,000 residents in all 67 counties. The state rate was 19.9 per 10,000 in the seven-month period reviewed. The rate in Luzerne County was 18.5.
				Of the seven adjacent counties, only Monroe and Lackawanna counties had rates higher than the state rate, 21.6 and 20.6 per 10,000, respectively. Monroe County had been a regional hotspot through much of the pandemic.
				Columbia, Schuylkill and Carbon counties had rates between 11.5 and 12.2 hospitalizations per 10,000 residents. More lightly populated Wyoming County had a rate of just 4.5 hospitalizations per 10,000, about one-fourth of the state rate. No data was reported for rural Sullivan County because the numbers were so low. Statewide, 12 other counties had no data for the same reason.
				Of the 54 counties with data reported, seven others joined Lackawanna and Monroe in having rates higher than the state rate, with Philadelphia County the highest, reporting 55 hospitalizations per 10,000 residents due to COVID-19.
				While Wyoming County had lower rates than any other local counties, it was not the lowest in the state. Eight counties had lower rates, with Tioga County reporting only 2.5 hospitalizations per 10,000.
				The state also broke down data into two time frames: March through June and July through September. Not surprisingly, hospitalizations due to COVID-19 were higher in the earlier months, reflecting the fact that cases surged state wide through spring before subsiding as summer weather took hold. The data does not cover the months of the second, and much higher, surge that occurred in the waning months of the year.
				For example, in Luzerne County from March through June there were 16.3 hospitalizations per 10,000 residents, compare to just 2.2 in July through September. Statewide, there were 14.5 per 10,000 in the earlier months and 5.4 in the latter months.
				Statewide, hospitalization rates were higher for older residents, especially 55 and older, as well as for men, Hispanics, Blacks and those in high poverty areas. The average hospital stay was 8.8 days, though it was longer for older people, and the in-hospital mortality rate was 16.3%, again being higher for older people
				In a related brief that did not break data down by county, the Council looked at patients hospitalized for COVID-19 and were diagnosed with sepsis, a system-wide inflammatory response to infection that can be lethal.
				Of the 26,266 COVID-19 hospitalizations from March through September, 30.5 % (7,008) also had a sepsis diagnosis. The in-hospital mortality rate for those with the dual diagnosis was 30.5% compared with 7.6% for patients admitted only with a COVID-19 diagnosis. The dual diagnosis patients also had longer hospital stays, averaging 12.5 days compared to 7.2 day s for those with only the COVID diagnosis.
				And mechanical ventilation was required far more often for those with both the virus and sepsis: 30.5 percent of patients with the dual diagnosis, compared to 5.9% for patients with COVID-19 alone.

Report: COVID hospitalizations lower than state rate in most area counties