Chesco's First COVID-19 Report Of 2021 Shows Drop In New Cases

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — As indoor dining reopens today, the number of new COVID-19 cases is down by 228 over the previous week in Chester County, a reduction about half the size of the fall in cases the previous week.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health updated its COVID-19 dashboard with data for the week ending Jan. 1, and those numbers showed an overall improvement, as did the metrics from the week ending Dec. 25.

The drop for the week of Dec. 25 to Jan. 1 was not as big as the drop seen in the week of Dec. 18 to Dec. 25, when new cases fell by 463, according to DOH's weekly updates. This week, the cases were down by 228.

The incidence rate also fell again this week. In the week of Dec. 18 to 24, Chester County's incidence rate fell from 365.3 to 276.6 per 100,000 residents, and for the week of Dec. 25 to Jan. 1 it went down again, to 239.6 per 100,000 residents, the state reported.

The improvement falls short of placing Chesco in what is considered "moderate" risk for COVID-19 spread, and the county remains at the "substantial" risk level, which begins at 100 cases per 100,000 residents.

In the previous week's measure, the county's positivity rate was at 11.1 percent, exceeding the 5-10 percent range that would take the county out of the "substantial" risk category. This week that figure went up to 11.4 percent. The only other metric that increased over the last week was the average number of persons on ventilators in the county each day, which rose from 12.6 to 17.1 between Christmas and New Years Day.

Hospitalizations were down this week, from about 164 per day last week to 148 on average in the most recent week ending Jan. 1.

A late fall spike in new COVID-19 cases began to abate this week in correlation with the COVID-19 vaccine making its way to front-line workers across Chester County and indoor restaurant dining forbidden since Dec. 12. Those mitigation measures expired today.

The improvement in metrics came even as Chester County passed its 500th death, as reported by the Chester County Health Department. The county's latest update said 504 have died of COVID-19 here as of Dec. 30.

The Chester County Health Department has reminded county residents, "The COVID-19 vaccine is not a cure for the virus. It is another tool in the fight against COVID-19."

The latest Chester County COVID-19 vaccination information is on the county's COVID-19 webpages at www.chesco.org/coronavirus.