Bucks Co. Cases Rising Again: See The Latest COVID-19 Metrics

BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA — As COVID-19 positivity rates begin to surge again across the country, Bucks County is seeing spikes in its coronavirus metrics.

The rise comes amid the increasing prevalence of the more-contagious delta variant, which is responsible for an estimated 43 percent of all new cases in Pennsylvania, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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With similar data coming in across the country, the CDC issued the recommendation Tuesday that vaccinated people in the U.S. begin wearing masks indoors again. While vaccines provide protection against the delta variant, the CDC said "breakthrough" cases can still occur.

Just before the CDC’s latest recommendation, Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie said that the county will not require vaccinated individuals to wear masks.

"The current surge in COVID cases around the nation is among those who are unvaccinated," the Bucks County Commissioners said in a joint statement. "While being vaccinated is not a guarantee against getting COVID, almost all of the COVID-related deaths and hospitalizations around the nation are among those not vaccinated."

Here is how Bucks County fared, metric-by-metric, in the most recent Department of Health data for the week of July 16 - July 22:

• Confirmed Cases: The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Bucks County jumped by 53 over this past week. The state counted 141 new cases from July 16 - July 22, compared to 88 the week before. Following a period of decline, cases are rising again.
• Rate Per 100,000 People: The county's incidence rate of the coronavirus was up last week as well. There were 22.4 cases per 100,000 people in Bucks County, according to the data, compared to 14 cases the week before.
• Positivity Rate: The rate of people who got COVID-19 PCR tests and tested positive increased by 1.2 percent since the previous week. The positivity rate in Bucks County was 2.6 percent last week, up from 1.4 percent the week before. In times of more intense spread, officials had been hoping for rates at less than 3 percent to signal slowing spread. While the county remains under that metric, the spike over only one week is cause for concern.
• Average Daily Hospitalizations: The daily number of hospitalizations for the coronavirus increased by a small margin last week in Bucks County, up from 10.6 hospitalizations on average to 11.
• Patients On Ventilators: There was no statistically significant change in the daily stats of patients on ventilators last week, and the number remains low. On average, 1.1 Bucks patients hospitalized for COVID-19 were on ventilators last week.
• Emergency Room Visits: The percentage of hospital emergency room visits attributed to COVID-19 in Bucks County has increased slightly, but still remains at less than 1 percent. Last week, 0.8 percent of Bucks County emergency visits were due to the coronavirus; in the prior week it was .7 percent.

The total number of new cases across the state has dramatically increased. Pennsylvania saw 2,393 new cases over the most recently tracked seven-day period, an increase of 851 from last week's 1,542 confirmed cases.

Statewide, higher case numbers have also come with a slowly rising hospitalization rate, as the past week has seen the average statewide hospitalization rate go up from 251 to 289. The percentage of Pennsylvania emergency room visits due to coronavirus symptoms rose from 0.6 to 0.7.

The highest numbers of reported cases in Bucks County as of Wednesday are in Levittown and Bensalem.

The county continues to offer free vaccinations to anyone age 12 and over from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. weekdays at the Neshaminy Mall in Bensalem and Warwick Square in Jamison. For a full list of vaccine providers in Bucks County and locations where COVID vaccines are being offered, you can visit Bucks County's Coronavirus Testing/Vaccination Information page.

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