Key Coronavirus Metric Elevated In 14 PA Counties

HARRISBURG, PA — The percent-positivity rate of coronavirus in Pennsylvania has increased this week up to 4.7 percent, state officials said Friday. The metric, used by officials to monitor the status of the virus statewide, stood at 4.4 percent last week.

There are now 14 counties with a "concerning" positivity level across Pennsylvania, state officials said, up from 10 last week.

Those counties are Beaver (8.7%), Armstrong (8.6%), Franklin (7.7%), Mercer (7.6%), Allegheny (6.6%), Lawrence (6.2%), Chester (6.0%), Philadelphia (5.6%), Fayette (5.4%), York (5.4%), Dauphin (5.3%), Delaware (5.3%), Bedford (5.1%) and Greene (5.1%).

“The mitigation efforts we took last week were a proactive step to get in front of the rise of cases that we are continuing to see,” Gov. Wolf said in a statement Friday. “We know that it will take a period of time for the mitigation efforts to be reflected in the data. One thing we know for certain is that we must continue to wear masks and practice social distancing.

The World Health Organization has said positivity rates should be under 5 percent. In Montgomery County, which was initially a hotspot of the virus in the region, the rate was at 3.54 percent heading into the weekend.

A higher positivity rate can indicate that the state is only testing patients with the worst symptoms, and is not really finding many of the individuals who are spreading the virus, WHO said.

According to the weekly status update issued July 24, the state has seen a seven-day new case increase of 5,912. It's another bump over the last two seven-day increases, which have been 5,579 and 4,914.

Pennsylvania has 105,571 total cases. Friday saw the highest single-day increase in more than 10 weeks, with 1,213 new cases reported.

For the duration of the pandemic, a total of 7,101 state residents have died from the virus.

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