Clinton County Crosses State’s Virus Positivity Rate of Concern
HARRISBURG, PA – Gov.Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine Tuesday released a weekly status update detailing the state’s mitigation efforts based on the COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard. And that update showed that Clinton County is among the counties with a COVID-19 positivity rate that bears watching. In fact, Clinton County went to number four in the state at 7.4 percent, well over the state-established threshold of five percent.
The statewide percent-positivity went up to 4.0% from 3.2% last week. Counties with concerning percent-positivity, according to the state, include Columbia (18.9%), Armstrong (8.6%), York (7.9%), Clinton (7.4%), Beaver (6.4%), Northumberland (5.7%), Indiana (5.6%), Blair (5.2%), Centre (5.0%), Dauphin (5.0%), and Lancaster (5.0%). The state release said each of these counties bears watching as the state continues to monitor all available data.
The dashboard is designed to provide early warning signs of factors that affect the state’s mitigation efforts. The data available on the early warning monitoring dashboard includes week-over-week case differences, incidence rates, test percent-positivity, and rates of hospitalizations, ventilations and emergency room visits tied to COVID-19. This week’s update compares the period of August 28 – September 3 to the previous seven days, August 21 – August 27.
“Our percent positivity increased significantly this week, a sign that this virus is still affecting Pennsylvanians,” Gov. Wolf said. “We must continue our focus on taking actions to protect ourselves and others, such as wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, washing our hands and avoiding large gatherings. Together, Pennsylvanians can work to prevent the spread of the virus.”
As of Thursday, September 3, the state has seen a seven-day case increase of 5,453; the previous seven-day increase was 4,188, indicating a 1,265-case increase across the state over the past week.
As of Friday’s data, Columbia and Centre counties were in the substantial level with known sources of outbreaks fueling community transmission. The departments of Education and Health will speak with school district representatives in both counties to discuss the implications of this level of transmission.
For the week ending September 3, 20 counties were in the low level of transmission, 45 counties in the moderate level, with two at the substantial transmission level:
• Low – Bedford, Bradford, Cameron, Carbon, Clarion, Elk, Forest, Fulton, Greene, Jefferson, Juniata, McKean, Perry, Pike, Potter, Sullivan, Tioga, Venango, Warren, Wyoming
• Moderate – Adams, Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Berks, Blair, Bucks, Butler, Cambria, Chester, Clearfield, Clinton, Crawford, Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Erie, Fayette, Franklin, Huntingdon, Indiana, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lawrence, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Lycoming, Mercer, Mifflin, Monroe, Montgomery, Montour, Northampton, Northumberland, Philadelphia, Schuylkill, Snyder, Somerset, Susquehanna, Union, Washington, Wayne, Westmoreland, York
• Substantial – Centre, Columbia
Cases Among 5-18-Year-Olds:
The Department of Health is providing weekly data on the number of statewide cases of COVID-19 among 5-18-year-olds.
Throughout the pandemic, there have been 7,788 total cases of COVID-19 among 5-18-year-olds. Of that total, 486 occurred between August 28-September 3.
