5 Key COVID-19 Metrics Up In Bucks Co., State Says

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Five of the six metrics the Pennsylvania Department of Health tracks on a county level increased in Bucks County last week.

The metrics are part of the state's Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard, which paints a comprehensive picture of the impact and status of the virus in the community and the healthcare system at large. The most recently published data covers the seven days from Aug. 28 to Sept. 3.

Here are the six metrics, and how Bucks County fares in the most recent data reporting:

• Newly reported confirmed cases: The county reported 252 cases over the seven day period, which is 86 more than the 166 the week before.
• Incidence rate per 100,000 residents: The incidence rate of the virus per 100,000 residents is now at 40.1 for the seven day period, up from 26.4 the previous seven days.
• The average number of patients on ventilators: This number has also ticked upwards, from 0.1 to 0.6.
• PCR testing positivity rate: The percent positivity rate on all coronavirus tests in Bucks County also went up last week. The PCR testing positivity rate is up to 3.6 percent. The week prior, it was 2.7. It remains well below the threshold for what's considered "concerning" at five percent.
• Percent of hospital emergency department visits due to COVID-like illness: In Bucks County, 0.5 percent of visits to the ER are due to COVID-like illness, up slightly from 0.4 percent the week before.
• Average daily COVID-specific hospitalizations: This is the only benchmark that has decreased in the state's latest report. The average daily COVID-specific hospitalization rate went down to 3.7 last week, from 4.9 the week before.

Officials in Bucks County, in response to the data, said they believe infections among college students and social gatherings led to the most recent spike in new cases. David Damsker, director of the Bucks County Department of Health, said infected college students returning to Bucks County have added multiple cases to the tally each day.

"We are still seeing people getting sick from other social gatherings and infecting their household members as well," Damsker said in a email to Patch in response to the state's data.

"At this point, while of course we don’t like to see any increase in cases, clearly the severity of illness is less and the average age of cases is trending a bit younger. Despite the increased metrics, the cases have certainly been less sick overall, and that trend has been true for a couple of months now as you can see by the hospitalizations and deaths being way down," Damsker said.

Since the pandemic began, Bucks County has had 7,591 residents test positive for COVID-19 and 522 deaths attributed to the virus. Statewide, there have been 140,359 cases in the state, with 81 percent of those infected now recovered and 7,791 deaths.

See the state's Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard and related data here.