Bucks COVID Cases Tick Up, Deaths And Hospitalizations Down

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — After significant declines, the number of new coronavirus infections in Bucks County ticked up slightly last week. But the rate of deaths and hospitalizations from the virus continued to drop in the county.

From Feb. 28-March 6, there were a total of 1,110 positive COVID-19 tests in Bucks County. That's 60 more than the previous week and brings the county's total since the pandemic began to 46,156.

The average of 158 new cases per day was a slight increase from the 152 cases per day reported the previous week. That was essentially flat from the week before, when there had been a massive 32-percent drop in Bucks County case numbers.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 13 new coronavirus deaths in Bucks County last week. That's down from 21 the week before and brings the county's total to 1,145 since the beginning of the pandemic.

COVID-related hospitalizations also dropped to 65 in Bucks County — a decrease of 10 from the previous week. Just 13 of those patients were in intensive care units, with nine of them on ventilators.

At week's end, 22 percent of the county's adult intensive care beds remained available, along with 31 percent of its medical surgical beds.

The news comes as officials in Bucks County and the rest of suburban Philadelphia were voicing continued frustration at the amount of vaccine they are getting.

After a meeting with the Pennsylvania Department of Health on Sunday, officials in counties in southeastern Pennsylvania say they still are largely in the dark as to why they have received a significantly lower allocation of doses than other, less-populated parts of the state, and what's being done to remedy the inequity.

A joint statement from leaders in Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware and Chester counties called the meeting "disappointing and frustrating."

On Monday, the counties called on the Pennsylvania Department of Health to do several things to remedy the situation.

They asked for a publicly available chart to show how much vaccine has been received each week from all sources, including the federal pharmacy partnerships. The biggest thing that has been repeated for weeks now is transparency from the state on its"county index" — the algorithm used to determine allocations, and the mechanism that is ostensibly at fault for causing the misallocation.

The counties also want details on when they will receive additional doses to make up the shortchange in recent weeks.

Bucks County COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout: Updates

As of Tuesday morning, 124,917 doses of coronavirus vaccine had been administered in Bucks County. A total of 41,451 people had received a single dose of the vaccine while 41,733 had received both doses, according to the Department of Health.