Pa. coronavirus updates: 829 new cases; 15 concerning counties; when will schools have to close from infect – lehighvalleylive.com

Pennsylvania added 829 new coronavirus cases on Friday, bringing the statewide case count to 122,950.

The Pa. COVID-19 death toll rose to 7,445 as 36 more deaths were reported in the daily update from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

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Meanwhile, the state has identified 15 counties with concerning rates of positive tests, including Berks County near the Lehigh Valley.

And schools are reopening, but when might they have to close again? New guidance from the state education department shows how many COVID-19 infections are allowable before a building shutdown is recommended, and for how long.

Pennsylvania coronavirus updates for Aug. 14, 2020.

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With 147 new COVID-19 cases, Philadelphia alone accounted for almost one-fifth of Fridays statewide case count. Pittsburghs Allegheny County had 90 new cases.

Pennsylvania closes out the week with its case rate again on the rise, averaging 810 new cases a day over the last seven days. Thats up from 747 at this time last week but still below the 925 case average from two weeks ago.

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The rate of hospitalizations has fallen after a small surge in July. However, the rate of statewide deaths is climbing. In the last seven days, on average, 21 Pennsylvanians died daily from COVID-19, up from 15 a week ago and 13 two weeks ago.

The health department estimates that 78% of Pennsylvania patients have recovered so far.

MORE: How to understand Pa. COVID-19 data with interactive charts

Each week, the health department updates its online early warning monitoring system and identifies counties with a concerning percentage of positive cases, above the World Health Organizations recommended threshold of 5%. This measurement factors into decisions on school reopenings.

(The state calculates percent positivity based on total tests, including duplicates. This method puts Pennsylvanias percent-positivity at 4% over the last week. Another way, used by lehighvalleylive.com and Johns Hopkins University, calculates percent positivity based on individuals tested, eliminating duplicate tests that method shows statewide positivity at 5.1% over the last seven days.)

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This week, 15 counties, many in rural central and western Pennsylvania, were above 5% positivity, by the states calculation. They are:

Last week, there were 17 counties above 5% positivity.

The lower the positivity rate, the more likely that testing is capturing the full spread of the virus in a community. On the other hand, high positivity rates show that only the sickest people are being tested which means that people with few or no symptoms may be unknowingly spreading the virus.

As of Friday, state data puts the Lehigh Valley at total 9,038 cases with 635 deaths, an increase of 20 cases and one death from the day before. That breaks down to:

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According to the health departments early warning dashboard, Lehigh County had 128 confirmed cases over the last week, up from 104 the previous week. The countys positivity rate (per the states calculation) rose to 4% this week, from 3.1% a week ago. Average daily hospitalizations, as reported by the health department, were cut in half, from 41.1 last week to 19.6 this week.

By the same metrics, Northampton County had 80 cases in the last week, down from 84 the previous week. The countys positivity rate dropped to 2.7% this week, down from 2.9% last week. Few residents are reportedly hospitalized in Northampton: The average daily hospitalizations dropped from 2.6 last week to 1.4 this week.

Here is how bordering Pennsylvania counties compare in cases and deaths:

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Schools are reopening, but when will they need to close again? New guidelines from the Pennsylvania Department of Education lay out a policy based on the number of infections within the school and how widespread COVID-19 is in the county. (The state described its process for determining county transmission earlier this week.)

In counties with low and moderate spread, schools will not need to close if just one student or staff member contracts COVID-19, but the building will need to be disinfected.

If two to four people fall ill, the school should close for up to a week for cleaning. If five or more infections are reported, schools could close for up to two weeks.

In all cases, if there is substantial county spread, schools will be advised to go fully virtual. The departments recommendations can be found here.

MORE: How many COVID-19 infections until a school must close? Pa. offers more guidelines.

(Cant see the table? Click here.)

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Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com.

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Pa. coronavirus updates: 829 new cases; 15 concerning counties; when will schools have to close from infect - lehighvalleylive.com