Bucks Co. Improving On 6 Key Coronavirus Indicators

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — After a fall and holiday surge that had experts calling the spread of the coronavirus out of control in Pennsylvania and across the nation, key indicators about the virus in Bucks County are moving in the right direction.

New cases are down, the percentage of positive tests is getting lower and hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in Bucks County are on their way down, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health's COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard.

The dashboard pulls together six metrics designed to paint a comprehensive picture of the impact and status of the virus in the community and the healthcare system at large.

Here is a look at those six metrics as of Tuesday, Jan. 26, and what they say about coronavirus in Bucks County:

• Confirmed Cases. Over the past seven days, the number of newly reported COVID-19 cases in Bucks County is down by 489 compared to the previous seven days. That's a significant dip and mirrors reports from county officials, who reported an 18-percent case-number drop last week and a 22-percent decrease the week before that.
• Incidence Rate. In Bucks County, the rate of COVID-19 illnesses per 100,000 people was 243.2 on Tuesday. By comparison, the county's incidence rate in mid-December sat at 525.
• Positivity Rate. The percentage of coronavirus tests in Bucks County that returned positive results over the past week sat at 9.2. It marks the first time the county has been below 10 percent in a while and, a few days after Christmas, that number was at 16.4 percent. The figure is still well above the 5 percent health experts consider a goal, but is moving in the right direction.
• Hospitalizations. The average number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus in Bucks County is down 25 from the previous week. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, there were 116 patients hospitalized with the virus on Tuesday, with 28 in critical condition and 19 of them on ventilators.
• Ventilators. In line with decreased hospitalizations, the number of people who are the sickest with the virus dipped slightly as well. Over the past seven days, there were, on average, nearly three fewer COVID-19 patients on ventilators than there were the week before.
• Emergency Room Visits. Less than one percent of hospital emergency room visits (.7 percent) in Bucks County were COVID-related last week.

Getting The COVID Vaccine In Bucks Co.: Updates

To be clear, COVID numbers in Bucks County and elsewhere remain significantly higher now than they were over the summer, when they dipped to the lowest levels since the pandemic began. But declining numbers, combined with the continued rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations, offers a ray of hope.