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Luzerne County coronavirus hospitalizations and testing positivity rate rise again

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After two consecutive days of record-shattering new cases, Luzerne County got a relative reprieve Friday when the state reported total new cases at 299 &mdash; compared to 534 Thursday and 485 Wednesday. Case totals for the county&rsquo;s current hot spot, the Dallas code of 18612, saw a similar drop, from 291 new cases Thursday to 99 Friday.
				That&rsquo;s still more than three times the next highest number of new cases in the Hazleton code of 31, but the Dallas code is trending sharply down. According to information provided by the state, the Dallas code apparently surged so dramatically this week largely because of an outbreak at SCI Dallas.
				Among the 41 ZIP codes all or partially in Luzerne County that the Times Leader tracks, the third highest total on Friday was Wilkes-Barre&rsquo;s 18702 with 13 cases, followed by the &ldquo;Drums&rdquo; (Butler Township) code of 18222 with 12 new cases and the Kingston code of 18704 with 10 no cases.
				No other codes had new case totals beyond single digits Friday. Five codes had only one new case, and 16 had no new cases reported.
				Statewide numbers
				The Department of Health on Friday confirmed that there were 9,320 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 538,655 cases.
				As of 11:59 p.m. Thursday there were 216 new deaths reported statewide, for a total of 13,608 deaths attributed to COVID-19. Out of the state&rsquo;s total deaths, 8,047 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities.
				Overall, there have been 14,716 cases in Luzerne County since the pandemic began, and 396 deaths.
				Neighboring Lackawanna County has has 7,125 cases and 255 deaths; Monroe County has had 5,068 cases and 183 deaths.
				***
				Staff writer Bill O&rsquo;Boyle contributed to this report.

299 new virus cases countywide