New COVID Cases Up In Bucks Co. After Christmas: See Latest Data

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — In the week following Christmas, the number of new coronavirus infections was once again on the rise in Bucks County.

The increase comes after two weeks of declining case numbers in the county and as restrictions on indoor dining and other activities put in place by Gov. Tom Wolf to curb the spread of the virus were set to expire on Monday.

From Dec. 27 through Jan. 2, 2,429 new COVID-19 infections were reported in Bucks County. That's an average of 327 new cases a day and a 5-percent increase over the previous week, when 2,314 new cases were reported.

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That number still remained about 28 percent lower than the record number of cases reported in mid-December, when Wolf instituted the temporary restrictions amid an out-of-control statewide surge in virus numbers.

Meanwhile, 33 new deaths from the coronavirus were reported in Bucks County last week, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. They included a 47-year-old woman with several contributing medical conditions, county officials said.

The other deaths were of people 60 and older. The week's fatality number was down from 38 the previous week and brought the county's total to 909 since the pandemic began. The 187 COVID deaths reported in December made it Bucks County's third-deadliest month of the pandemic.

On Monday, Pennsylvania restaurants were once again allowed to offer indoor dining and health clubs, casinos and other indoor entertainment venues were allowed to reopen. The restrictions went into effect on Dec. 12 after a fall surge drove case numbers to record highs in the state.

Last week, Wolf confirmed that the plan's original Jan. 4 end date would hold.

"Our mitigation efforts over the past several weeks are working, and I thank everyone who abided by the restrictions put in place to protect us," Wolf said. "Every time we make a small decision to avoid risk – or take steps to make our actions a little bit less risky – we are helping to stop the spread of COVID-19 and save lives."

The reopening also comes as vaccines continued to roll out in the state. At the end of last week, 6,011 partial vaccinations had been given in Bucks County and 132,612 throughout Pennsylvania, officials said. The vaccine requires two doses be given, three weeks apart.

Bucks County's number of doses administered is fourth-highest in the state, behind Allegheny, Montgomery and Lehigh counties.

The percentage of people tested for the virus who were positive also rose slightly in Bucks County last week, from 15.1 percent to 15.4 percent. Statewide, the positivity rate ticked down from 15.1 percent to 15.

Since the spring, Bucks County has had 31,468 cases of COVID-19 reported, while the statewide total is 661,871. A total of 16,294 deaths in Pennsylvania had been attributed to the virus through Saturday.

Last week, 145 people were hospitalized with the coronavirus in Bucks County, down from 167 the previous week. Of those, 24 patients were on ventilators and officials said hospital capacity remained solid, with 41 percent of ICU beds and 39 percent of medical surgical beds available.

Bucks County commissioners continued to urge residents to download the free COVID Alert PA app, which uses Bluetooth technology to let a person know that they have been exposed to COVID-19 without compromising the identity or location of either the person using the app or the person to whom they may have been exposed.