Data update shows pandemic continuing to wane in Berks

Berks County keeps getting good news about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state’s weekly update of COVID data shows that pandemic is continuing to dwindle in the county. Cases, the case rate and hospitalizations all remained at low levels.

Cases

Berks continued to see a continued drop in its COVID case count this week, with the county seeing its lowest number since the state began reporting weekly data in early May.

According to Wednesday’s update of the state Department of Health’s COVID dashboard, Berks had 152 new cases and reinfections. That’s down 14 from the 166 reported last week.

The county’s case counts have dropped significantly the past 11 weeks after hitting a holiday-surge peak of 776 in data reported Jan. 4.

The county’s COVID cases per 100,000 residents was also down from data reported last week. The state’s Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard showed that between March 15 and 21 the county had a case rate of 18 per 100,000 people, down two from the number reported last week.

Like the weekly case count, the case rate in the county has dropped dramatically since peaking at 102 in data reported on Jan. 4.

The positivity rate in Berks reported this week also decreased from last week. The rate of 7.6% was down nearly 2 points from the rate of 8.4% reported last week.

Overall, Berks has had 127,287 COVID cases during the pandemic.

Statewide, this week’s data showed 26 COVID cases per 100,000 people and a positivity rate of 7%. Both numbers were down from data reported last week.

There have been 3,539,135 COVID cases in the state during the pandemic, with 5,198 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 five new COVID deaths of county residents this week. Berks has had 1,783 total deaths during the pandemic.

Statewide, a total of 50,623 people have died of COVID, an increase of 106 from data reported last week.

Hospitalizations

Hospitalizations of COVID patients in Berks were down slightly, nearing their lowest point since early May.

According to state data released Wednesday, there were 17 hospitalized patients in the county. That’s down six from the 23 reported the previous week.

The hospitalizations reported this week were the second lowest since May, coming in behind only the 16 reported two weeks ago.

Of the hospitalized patients in this week’s data, one was in intensive care and two were on ventilators. The number of intensive care patients was down one from data reported last week, while the number on ventilators was the same.

Statewide there were 671 COVID patients hospitalized, down 76 from the number reported last week.

Vaccinations

• The number of fully vaccinated individuals in Berks was 261,569, an increase of 132.

• The number of individuals to receive a bivalent booster dose since Sept. 2 is 56,921, an increase of 253.

Source: Berkshire mont