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Luzerne County&rsquo;s new coronavirus cases and positive test rate increased last week along with ventilator use, according to the state health department&rsquo;s latest early warning dashboard update.
				In a sign of progress, hospitalizations are still high but decreased slightly, it said.
				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 state update compared benchmarks from the weeks ending Dec. 24 and Dec. 31.
				The county had 1,463 new confirmed COVID-19 cases last week, or 255 more than the prior week&rsquo;s 1,208.
				As a result, the number of cases per 100,000 residents, or county incidence rate, rose from 380.3 to 460.6 over the two-week period.
				Its positivity rate, or the percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results, also increased from 16.4% to a new 17.2%. For context, the county&rsquo;s rate was 1.5% when the state launched the dashboard at the end of June.
				An average 9.4 county residents were on ventilators each day last week, or 1.8 more than the previous 7.6.
				However, the average daily number of residents hospitalized for the coronavirus decreased from 123.9 to 118.3 last week.
				Due to 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.
				The substantial level is reached when the incidence rate is 100 or above or the positivity rate is 10% or higher &mdash; benchmarks both still exceeded in the county.
				In the final benchmark tracked in the dashboard, the county&rsquo;s percentage of hospital visits tied to coronavirus-like illnesses decreased from 1.3% to 0.8% over the two weeks.
				Statewide numbers 
				The statewide positivity rate remained the same &mdash; 15% &mdash; last week.
				Reductions were reported statewide in the four remaining benchmarks.
				There were 40,407 additional confirmed coronavirus cases last week, a reduction of 8,476 from the prior week&rsquo;s 48,883 new cases, it said.
				This lowered the incidence rate from 381.7 two weeks ago to 315.5 last week.
				An average 5,896.1 state residents were hospitalized daily for the coronavirus last week, or 184.8 less than the prior week&rsquo;s 6,080.9, the dashboard said.
				Of those hospitalized, 713.7 were on ventilators each day last week, a reduction of 30.3.
				The percentage of hospital visits due to coronavirus-like illnesses also decreased from 1.3% to 1.2% over the two-week period.

Luzerne County’s coronavirus positivity testing rate and cases rise in latest two-week comparison