Chesco's COVID-19 Metrics Show Steady Climb Over 4 Weeks

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — As school openings near and questions loom about masks and the Delta variant of the coronavirus, Chester County has seen a slow and steady climb in its COVID-19 metrics among a population that has a high percentage vaccinated against the disease.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health report for the week ended Aug. 6 shows all COVID-19 metrics going up, a trend over recent weeks that puts Chester County in the CDC's category of substantial risk of transmission.

Cases of COVID-19 rose by 118 in the first week of August continuing a steady climb over four weeks that looks like this: In the week ended July 15, there had been 37 cases reported, and in the week ended July 22, 91 new cases were reported. For the week ended July 29, 137 new cases were reported and for the week ended Aug. 6, there were 255 cases reported by the PA DOH.

The County's incidence rate also rose. The measure of how densely the virus is spreading within a population shows a similar climb over recent weeks. On July 15, the DOH reported an incidence rate of 7.0 per 100,000 for the previous seven days in Chester County. On July 22, that number was 17.3, in the PA DOH weekly report and by July 29 it rose to 26.1. On Aug. 6, the DOH reported Chester County's incidence rate for COVID-19 at 48.6 per 100,000 residents.

Chesco's incidence rate had been reported on July 2 at 5.3 per 100,000 residents.

Substantial risk, on the CDC chart, starts at an incidence rate of 50. The Aug. 6 data was the most recent available from the state DOH on Wednesday, but the CDC on Aug. 9 had reported Chester County was in the substantial risk category.

After dipping very low in early July, Chester County's positivity rate rose from 1.1 percent in the week ended July 15 to 2.3 percent in the week ended July 22. By July 29, the DOH reported the positivity rate as 2.7 percent, and on Aug. 6, it was 4.1 percent.

Positivity rate represents the percentage of COVID-19 tests given that are positive. At the end of June and the first week of July, Chester County's positivity rate dropped to below 1 percent, the DOH reported at the time.

Early in July hospitalizations were still trending downward. They fell from 4.1 to 5.4 on average daily, from the week ended July 15 to July 22. But in the week ended July 29, there were 9.9 hospitalizations daily, on average. In the week ended Aug. 6, there were 10.3, the state DOH reported.

The use of ventilators for COVID-19 patients was getting better as late as July 22 when the average number of patients on ventilators daily dropped from 0.3 to 0 for the week. In the week of July 29 that number was 1.0 and for the week ended Aug. 6, 2.7 patients were on ventilators on average each day in Chester County.

The federal Centers for Disease Control reports 86.4 of Chester County's total population is vaccinated; that figure counts all residents, including children who are not currently able to be vaccinated. The percentage of residents who are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine and who've received at least one dose is very high here. In Chester County, 291,782 people are fully vaccinated and about another 5,000 have had at least one vaccine. The County's population is around 524,000.

CDC information on the Delta variant can be found here.

In response to the uptick in the Delta coronavirus variant, U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan called together an expert panel discussion of the Delta variant for Friday morning. Read the story here and phone in for the town hall at (855) 731-4616.

The Chester County Health Department asks residents to make sure they have had their second dose of the vaccine, and that it is not too late. Information on scheduling a COVID-19 vaccine in Chester County can be found here.

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