'Something very historical': Push for diverse Biden Cabinet

126032955_web1_covid-by-zip-11-20-20

Wilkes-Barre and Kingston ZIP codes have biggest weekly COVID-19 increases

Luzerne County has tracked the deaths of 37 residents due to the coronavirus in November so far, according to a report released Friday by county Manager C. David Pedri upon request.
				The ages of the victims ranged from 60 to 100.
				There were another 23 deaths in October, one in September and four in August.
				Among the deaths in October and November were five SCI Dallas inmates, it said. The men were all in their 70s.
				To date, the county has a reported 247 deaths throughout the pandemic, the report said.
				Pedri has repeatedly urged residents to take the COVID-19 threat seriously and said rising numbers should cause alarm and convince everyone to wear masks and follow other safety precautions.
				New figures
				The number of county residents hospitalized due to coronavirus rose again this week, according to the state&rsquo;s early warning update released Friday.
				An average 92.9 county residents were hospitalized for coronavirus daily in the week ending Thursday, compared to 71.3 the week of Nov. 6 to 12, it shows.
				For context, there were 6.6 county residents hospitalized the first week of October and 16.3 the second week.
				Of those county residents hospitalized, an average 8.3 were on ventilators each day last week, a slight increase from the prior week&rsquo;s 8.1, the dashboard said.
				New confirmed coronavirus cases also increased in the county over the two-week period, according to the update 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>.
				The county added 1,117 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the last week ending Thursday &mdash; an increase of 350 from the previous week&rsquo;s 767 new cases, the update says.
				As a result, the county&rsquo;s incidence rate, or number of cases per 100,000 residents, rose from 241.5 two weeks ago to a current 351.6, it said. 
				Also rising was the county&rsquo;s positivity rate, or percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results, which jumped from 10.8% to 13.4%.
				Based on the latest numbers, county school districts will remain in the highest classification of &ldquo;substantial&rdquo; community transmission in which remote-only learning is recommended by the state. This level is reached when the incidence rate is 100 or above or the positivity rate is 10% or higher.
				The county now meets both of those factors.
				Most counties &mdash; 59 of 67 &mdash; were in the substantial level this week, including Luzerne, prompting the state health and education departments to speak with their school districts about implications, a state release said.
				Only five counties were in the &ldquo;moderate&rdquo; virus spread ranking, which means their districts were advised to avoid full in-person instruction. These counties: Fayette, Pike, Susquehanna, Warren and Wayne.
				The remaining three counties &mdash; Cameron, Forest and Sullivan &mdash; were in the &ldquo;low&rdquo; spread ranking because they had both fewer than 10 cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period and a positivity rate below 5%, the state said. Districts in counties ranked as &ldquo;low&rdquo; transmission should consider full in-person instruction or a blended system, with some students in school while others learn remotely at home, the state said.
				Friday&rsquo;s early warning update also includes a fifth benchmark &mdash; the percentage of hospital visits due to coronavirus-like illnesses &mdash; which remained at 1% in the county over the two weeks.
				Statewide numbers
				Pennsylvania experienced an increase in all five virus-tracking benchmarks, the latest update said.
				There were 36,133 additional cases statewide in the week ending Thursday, or 8,807 more than the prior week&rsquo;s 27,326.
				With that increase, the statewide cases per 100,000 rose from 213.4 to 282.1. The state&rsquo;s positivity rate increased from 9.6% to 11.1% in the latest week.
				Other statewide benchmark updates:
				&#8226; Average daily hospitalizations rose from 1,968.1 to 2,849.1.
				&#8226; The daily average number of patients on ventilators increased from 188.3 to 291.6.
				&#8226; The percentage of hospital visits due to coronavirus-like illnesses jumped from 1.2% to 1.4%.

Report: Luzerne County has tracked 37 coronavirus deaths in November so far