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Luzerne County had 87 new confirmed coronavirus cases from Aug. 21 to Thursday, compared to 84 the week before, according to the state health department&rsquo;s latest early warning dashboard update on Friday.
				The increase of three slightly bumped up the county&rsquo;s incidence rate, or number of cases per 100,000 residents, from 26.4 to 27.4 over the two-week period.
				In another dashboard benchmark, the &ldquo;positivity rate,&rdquo; or percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results, rose from 3.3% to 3.5% in the county, it said.
				This places the county&rsquo;s positivity rate above the statewide 3.2%.
				The state&rsquo;s positivity rate was 3.4% two weeks ago, which means it has now declined five weeks in a row.
				Also rising at the county level were the average daily number of coronavirus hospitalizations, which went from 3.1 to 5.1 over the period.
				Two more county statistics were presented:
				&#8226; On average, 0.3 coronavirus patients were on a ventilator each day, compared to 0.1 the week before.
				&#8226; The county&rsquo;s hospital visits due to coronavirus-like illnesses decreased from 0.6% to 0.4%.
				The latest report means county school districts will remain in the &ldquo;moderate&rdquo; ranking for community transmission.
				School districts in &ldquo;moderate&rdquo; counties should avoid full in-person instruction and use either remote-only learning or a blended hybrid model, with some students in school while others learn remotely at home, the state said.
				To advance to the &ldquo;low&rdquo; ranking, counties must have both fewer than 10 cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period and a positivity rate below 5%, the state has said.
				Districts in counties ranked as &ldquo;low&rdquo; transmission should consider full in-person instruction for all students or a blended system, the state said.
				Statewide benchmarks
				The number of new coronavirus cases decreased from 4,518 to 4,165 &mdash; a reduction of 353. That lowered cases per 100,000 from 35.3 to 32.5, the dashboard said.
				The remaining statewide dashboard updates:
				&#8226; Average daily hospitalizations decreased from 543.6 to 522.
				&#8226; The daily average number of patients on ventilators dropped from 92.1 to 79.1.
				&#8226; The percentage of hospital visits due to coronavirus-like illnesses statewide declined from 0.7% to 0.6%.
				The dashboard is posted at <a href="https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Monitoring-Dashboard.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.health.pa.gov</a>.

Slight increase in Luzerne County coronavirus cases reported in new weekly dashboard