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Unemployment payment boost to begin in Pennsylvania

Luzerne County&rsquo;s latest weekly coronavirus benchmarks contained both positive and negative signs.
				Hospitalizations and ventilator use due to COVID-19 increased this week, but new cases and the rate of positive coronavirus tests decreased, according to the state health department&rsquo;s early warning dashboard 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 report compared statistics from the weeks ending Thursday and Dec. 31.
				An average 121.9 county residents were hospitalized daily this week, an increase of 3.6 from the previous week&rsquo;s 118.3, it said.
				Of those hospitalized, an average 11.9 were on ventilators, or 2.5 more than the 9.4 reported two weeks ago.
				The county had 1,193 new confirmed COVID-19 cases this week, or 259 less than the prior week&rsquo;s 1,452.
				As a result, the number of cases per 100,000 residents, or county incidence rate, decreased from 457.4 to 375.8 over the two-week period.
				Its positivity rate, or the percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results, also declined from 17.1% to a new 15.3%. For perspective, the county&rsquo;s rate was 1.5% when the state launched the dashboard at the end of June.
				In the final benchmark tracked in the dashboard, the county&rsquo;s percentage of hospital visits tied to coronavirus-like illnesses decreased from 0.8% to 0.5% over the two weeks.
				Statewide numbers
				The state had an increase in cases week over week.
				There were 42,322 additional confirmed cases this week, or 1,034 more than the 41,288 logged two weeks ago.
				This raised the state&rsquo;s incidence rate from 322.5 to 330.6.
				But like the county, the state had some encouraging statistics in its latest update.
				The statewide positivity rate decreased from 15% to a new 14.4%.
				An average 5,514.9 state residents were hospitalized daily for the coronavirus this week, or 381.2 less than the prior week&rsquo;s 5,896.1.
				Of those hospitalized, 657.4 were on ventilators each day this week, a reduction of 56.3.
				The percentage of hospital visits due to coronavirus-like illnesses also decreased slightly from 1.2% to 1.1% over the two-week period.

Mixed progress in Luzerne County’s latest weekly coronavirus update