Berks numbers show COVID pandemic continues to wane

A monthslong easing of the COVID pandemic in Berks County is continuing.

The weekly update of state COVID data shows low numbers for the county, including the smallest case count since mid-2021. Hospitalizations and deaths also remained low.

Cases

The weekly COVID case count in Berks hit its lowest point in nearly two years.

According to Wednesday’s update of the state Department of Health’s COVID dashboard, Berks had just 44 new cases and reinfections. That’s down 16 from the 60 reported last week.

The county’s case counts have dropped significantly the past 14 weeks after hitting a holiday-surge peak of 776 in data reported Jan. 4. This week’s number was the lowest since mid-July 2021.

The state’s Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard, which reports cases per 1,000 residents and positivity rate, was not updated this week.

Overall, Berks has had 127,652 COVID cases during the pandemic.

Statewide, there have been 3,555,541 COVID cases during the pandemic, with 1,784 new cases and reinfections added in Wednesday’s data update.

Deaths

The state, which reports the number of Berks residents to die no matter where the deaths take place, reported no new COVID deaths in the county this week. Berks’ total deaths during the pandemic remained at 1,794.

Statewide, a total of 50,999 people have died of COVID, an increase of 53 from data reported last week.

Hospitalizations

Hospitalizations of COVID patients in Berks remained steady this week, remaining near their lowest point in almost a year.

According to state data released Wednesday, there were just seven hospitalized patients in the county. That’s up one from the six reported the previous week.

Of the hospitalized patients in this week’s data, none was in intensive care or on a ventilator. The number of intensive care patients is down one from data reported last week, while the number on ventilators was down three.

The county has now had no reported COVID patients in intensive care for four of the past five weeks.

Statewide there were 292 COVID patients hospitalized, down 49 from the number reported last week.

Vaccinations

• The number of fully vaccinated individuals in Berks was 262,057 an increase of 88.

• The number of individuals to receive a bivalent booster dose since Sept. 2 is 57,945, an increase of 193.

Source: Berkshire mont