PA Update – April 27, 2021

After a few weeks of slowing growth in Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 cases, the state reported significant drop last week.

A total of 21,267 cases were reported for the seven-day period ending on April 22, a week-over-week drop of 4,172 cases. The cases reported a month ago were more than 3,000 new cases a week.  The decline led to a statewide drop to 8.6 percent in virus positivity as well, near where PA was at the end of March.

More than 321,000 tests were conducted, compared to earlier in April when testing had dropped below 300,000 for a week at a time.  The largest overall declines were in Philadelphia, Allegheny, Montgomery, Bucks, and both  Lancaster and Lehigh Counties,   Other more populated counties: Northampton, Westmoreland, Berks, Chester, Luzerne and Delaware counties were among the top ten in declines. .

51 of the state’s 67 counties reported week-over-week drops in seven-day case totals, while 53 counties experienced some amount of decline in their seven-day positivity and four other counties saw no change in their positivity. A week earlier, 37 counties had reported higher positivity than the prior week, while 30 had reported lower levels of positivity than the prior week.

These numbers are reflected in the reduction in virus hospitalizations, which were reported at 2,561, down from the 2,638 a week earlier.

With daily hospitalization number already below the levels of a week ago, most are expecting the averages to also decline, both in terms of hospitalizations and ICU usage.  The state reported 544 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units. At the same time, 300 Covid-19 deaths were reported last week, an increase for the fourth straight week.

By Tuesday April 27, the numbers had continued to decrease, with just 2,495 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19. Of that number, 517 patients are in the intensive care unit with COVID-19.

In licensed nursing and personal care homes, there are 70,516 resident cases of COVID-19, and 14,734 cases among employees, for a total of 85,250 at 1,588 distinct facilities in all 67 counties.

A total of 26,072 deaths attributed to COVID-19. County-specific information and a statewide map are available on the COVID-19 Data Dashboard.  Out of the total PA deaths reported to PA-NEDSS, 13,089 occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities.