COVID-19 Spikes Again In Chester County: Weekly Updates

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — New COVID-19 cases over the last week spiked again, up by 320 over the last 7-day period, the largest uptick since the downward trend of recent months began a U-turn three weeks ago.

The surge in cases comes as Chester County has opened vaccine registration to those in Phases 1B, 1C, and Phase 2.

In the week ended April 2, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 951 new COVID-19 cases for Chester County. The previous 7 days saw 631 cases and the week before that saw 508 new cases, the DOH reported.

The last week that numbers trended downward overall was March 11, when new cases were reported down by 81. The DOH report for March 18 saw the turnaround that continued more sharply this week.

After more than two months of downward-trending COVID-19 metrics, Chester County, again this week, also saw both the positivity rate and the county's incidence rate reverse their decline for a third week in a row.

The incidence rate for the week ended April 2 in Chester County was 181 per 100,000 residents. That measure is up from an incidence rate of 120 per 100,000 residents the week before. It's climbed from 73.5 the week ending March 11, to 96.8 the week ending March 18.

The positivity rate was also up this week in Chester County. Positivity rate gives a more accurate picture of what the virus is doing, alongside raw case counts and incidence rates, because it accounts for the percentage of cases based on how many COVID-19 tests were given.

The positivity rate for the week ended April 2 is 9.1 percent in Chester County, up from 6 percent in the previous 7-day period. On March 11, the positivity rate was reported at 4.3 percent here. It has climbed each week since then, but the last seven days saw the steepest climb.

After a downward trend, average daily hospitalizations began to rise in the week ended March 26. Last week 38.6 were hospitalized for COVID-19 in Chesco, on average each day. For the week just ended, 47.6 were hospitalized for COVID-19, according to DOH's April 2 report. That is a 9.1 percent increase. Hospitalizations had fallen the week of March 18 from 46 to 32.

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, 31,759 have tested positive for COVID-19 in Chester County, according to the Chester County Health Department. In that time 749 have died here.

Amid the upsurge, Chester County continues its COVID-19 vaccine rollout as supply permits. As of April 1, DOH reported 83,802 people in Chester County have been partially vaccinated, and 76,879 have been fully vaccinated with Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

In all 160,681 in Chesco have received at least a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine; that number includes 40,035 who've been partially vaccinated by the Chester County Health Department and 22,300 people who've been full vaccinated by the county health department.

More than 11,000 teachers and educational staff in Chester County have received the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine, Chester County Health Department reported on April 1.

Chester County reported it received 23,820 doses of vaccine from the state in the last week, countywide, with 7,340 of those — just over one-third of the doses — sent to the Chester County Health Department. The county health department allotment of doses from the state was comprised of 5,000 Moderna doses and 2,340 Pfizer doses.

The county said late Friday is had not yet confirmed the number of Johnson & Johnson doses it will receive from the state allotment going to greater Philadelphia's four suburban counties, but it said the weekly amount indicated was 10,500 J&J doses.

Chester County has sent out emails to all who are registered for a vaccine with the county, asking that any who've been vaccinated elsewhere please remove themselves from the list.

Information on Chester County's COVID-19 vaccine program and online registration can be found at chesco.org/covidvaccine.

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