Weekly COVID data in Berks remains steady

Berks County saw only small fluctuations in weekly COVID data reported by the state Department of Health.

New cases and reinfections, the case rate and percent positivity were each down slightly. Deaths and hospitalizations saw slight increases.

Cases

The county saw a decrease in weekly cases.

According to Wednesday’s update of the state Department of Health’s COVID dashboard, Berks had 429 new cases and reinfections. That’s down 46 from the 475 reported last week.

Despite the decrease, this week’s case count was the second highest since 503 were reported on Sept. 28.

The county’s COVID cases per 100,000 residents were also down from data reported last week. The state’s Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard showed that between Oct. 26 and Nov. 1 the county had a case rate of 52 per 100,000 people. Last week the rate was 65 per 100,000 people.

The positivity rate of 10.2% in Berks was down by more than half of a percentage point from the rate reported last week.

Overall, Berks has had 119,184 COVID cases during the pandemic.

Statewide, this week’s data showed 75 COVID cases per 100,000 people and a positivity rate of 11.5%. Both were up from data reported last week.

There have been 3,317,854 COVID cases in the state during the pandemic, with 13,038 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 this week that a total of 1,689 county residents have died of COVID. That’s an increase of eight from data reported last week.

The eight deaths are the most weekly deaths reported by the state for Berks since June 8.

Statewide, a total of 47,840 people have died of COVID, an increase of 135 from data reported last week.

Hospitalizations

Hospitalizations of COVID patients in Berks ticked up this week.

According to state data released Wednesday, there were 36 hospitalized patients in the county. That’s up one from the previous week.

Of the hospitalized patients, four were in intensive care and one was on a ventilator. The number of intensive care patients was up one from last week, while the number on ventilators was the same.

Statewide there were 1,248 COVID patients hospitalized, down 53 from the number reported last week.

Vaccinations

• The number of fully vaccinated individuals in Berks was 256,798, an increase of 446.

• The number of individuals to receive a bivalent booster dose since Sept. 2 is 30,035, an increase of 3,710.

Source: Berkshire mont