Montco Coronavirus: Slight Case Increase As Positivity Rate Drops

NORRISTOWN, PA — While Montgomery County's average number of daily cases has slightly increased, the positivity rate has continued to drop. This comes amidst a spike in cases statewide.

Montgomery County's average number of daily coronavirus cases sits at 46 as of Tuesday. It was down to 32 back on July 15, and has crept back up since then.

However, delays in test results due to an increased demand means that daily numbers and sometimes even weekly numbers are not giving a fully accurate picture of the present state of the virus, officials say.

An important metric increasingly referenced by state and county officials is the positivity rate of tests. In Montgomery County, this number is just about as low as it has ever been, at 3.47 percent on Tuesday. That's down from 3.72 percent in the middle of the month. Both numbers are good.

"Having our positivity rate less than five percent indicates that we have a pretty good control on this virus," Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh said last week.

That is not true elsewhere in the state. A total of 14 counties have a "concerning" positivity rate, which, according to the World Health Organization, is anything over five percent. Two of those 14 counties, Delaware and Philadelphia, are in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Montgomery County, which was among the regional epicenters of the virus when the pandemic began in the area in March, looks especially good in light of that metric.

A higher positivity rate can indicate that the state is only testing patients with the worst symptoms, and is not really finding many of the individuals who are spreading the virus, WHO said.

Montgomery County, like much of the country, is struggling with lagging test results. This is due both to labs being overwhelmed by increased demand, and the nationwide surge in cases. The county works with Quest to get results back, and has been told that Quest is purchasing and installing new equipment to improve delivery times. The county, meanwhile, is considering contracting the services of another lab.

All told over the past week, the county has seen 383 cases of the virus, an increase over the 297 from the seven days previous. There have been 9,473 cases and 818 deaths in the county since the pandemic began.