64 PA Counties Remain In COVID Red Zone: White House Task Force

PENNSYLVANIA — While the fourth wave of coronavirus seems to have started to ebb and case numbers are once again declining in Pennsylvania, the vast majority of the state remains in the "red zone," as determined by the latest report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

A total of 64 of the state's 67 counties are in the red, indicating the high community transmission category. That's every county in Pennsylvania, save for the rural districts of Forest, Venango, and Cameron counties.

Counties that are in red zones have more than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents.

While several counties started to emerge from the red zone in early February, including many of the most populous areas around the Philadelphia suburbs, the state plunged nearly fully back into red in March and April with the latest surge in the virus. Nearly the entire state has been in the red zone since early April.

However, there are signs that this surge — possibly driven by variants of the virus even as the statewide vaccination rate shoots up —may be abating or even reversing.

“This week we saw a decrease in reported cases and a lower statewide percent positivity – which is encouraging news,” Gov. Wolf said.

Statewide, the total number of cases over the most recently tracked seven-day period was 21,167; that's down from 25,339 the week previous, according to the state's Early Warning Dashboard Monitoring System.

Additionally, the percent positivity rate on tests decreased from 9.6 percent to 8.6 percent. Another key metric, the incidence rate per 100,000 residents, was down from 197 to 165.

However, healthcare metrics remain elevated.

The average daily number of hospitalized coronavirus patients in Pennsylvania the past week was 2,740, up from 2,532.

Similarly, the average daily number of patients on ventilators increased from 259 to 282.

The number of emergency room visits due to coronavirus symptoms did drop, from 0.9 percent to 0.7 percent.

The White House report shows that the statewide hospitalization rate is higher this week than it's been since the week of Jan. 27. This rate does remain well below the height of last fall's surge, when the state had nearly 9,000 new admissions per week in mid-December.

See the full April 27 White House Task Force report here.