The state Department of Health last week reported 2,710 new COVID infections in Bucks County, a 12 percent increase from the previous week’s total. The seven-day average stood at 380 cases per day as of Saturday.
State totals increased by 58,945 new cases, a 14 percent hike over the previous week. Pennsylvania reported on Friday more than 10,000 new daily infections for the first time since mid-December, a trend that could continue this week, state Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said.
“We think this is an increase from the holidays,” Levine said of the numbers, reported two weeks after Christmas and a week after New Year’s.
In response to the increases, Bucks County announced last week that it is partnering with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare to offer free COVID testing for the next three weeks at three Bucks County Community College sites. The testing will operate at the locations seven days a week through Jan. 31, with the capacity to perform up to 350 tests per day at each site.
The state reported that Bucks County’s test positivity rate decreased last week from 15.4 percent to 14.7 percent.
Bucks County has had 34,178 confirmed COVID cases during the pandemic, while the state has had 720,816. The county has had 940 COVID-related deaths, while a total of 17,770 Pennsylvanians have died.
The county reported 31 deaths last week, nine of them residents of long-term care facilities. Of the 31 decedents, nine were in their 90s, seven in their 80s, eight in their 70s, four in their 60s, two in their 50s, and the youngest was 49.
Bucks County medical facilities continue to receive doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Through Saturday, the state reported that Bucks County ranked fourth in the state with 9,404 partial vaccinations and 1,023 full vaccinations administered. Statewide, 227,617 partial vaccinations and 18,787 full vaccinations have been given.
The county remains in the 1A phase of Pennsylvania’s vaccine rollout, which is focused on vaccinating healthcare providers, long-term care residents and staff, and EMS workers.
The next phase, 1B, is expected to begin sometime in February. It includes people at least 75 years old, people living and working in congregate care settings not covered in 1A, first responders, corrections officers, food and agriculture workers, postal workers, manufacturing employees, teachers and other education workers, clergy, public transit employees and some types of caregivers.
More information and statistics about the vaccine program are available on the county’s vaccine information portal.
A total of 189 patients with COVID are hospitalized in Bucks County, 26 of them on ventilators. Hospital capacity for treating them and other patients remains ample, with 35 percent of adult ICU beds and 32 percent of medical surgical beds available.
The county commissioners continue to urge the public to download the free COVID Alert PA app, which uses Bluetooth technology to let a person know that they have been exposed to COVID-19 without compromising the identity or location of either the person using the app, or of the person to whom they may have been exposed.
To see an interactive map showing Bucks County cases reported in the past 30 days, please click here.
Statistics, charts, links to state health department data and other coronavirus-related information can be found on the county’s data portal: https://covid19-bucksgis.hub.arcgis.com.