Chester County Covid Risk 'Moderate' Says State

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — Pennsylvania's health department rated Chester County's Covid-19 transmission risk as 'moderate' based on numbers last week.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health is providing details on the likelihood of getting coronavirus through community transmission by county. Those details are informing how the Department of Education is advising schools to handle instruction for the 2020-2021 school year.

According to the health department, the risk of community transmission of the coronavirus in Chester County is "moderate" as of Aug. 7.

"Moderate" designation means the county has anywhere from 10 to less than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents over seven days or a 5 to 10 percent positivity rate over seven days.

According to the health department, Chester County has a 4 percent positive testing rate as of Aug. 7. That's down from 5.2 the week before.

The incidence of new cases among 100,000 people over a week's time is 41.8, per the health department. In the previous week, that figure was 58.0. Cases reported by number are down to 218 from 303 cases last week.

To achieve "low" risk, counties must have fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 people over seven days and less than 5 percent positivity rate over seven days.

"Substantial" risk is denoted when a county has greater than 10 new cases per 100,000 people over seven days or a more than 10 percent positivity rate over seven days.

As of Monday, Delaware County has had 5,194 cases of coronavirus and 394 coronavirus-related deaths. There are 51,719 negative tests on record in Chester County.

Other Philadelphia area counties — Chester, Montgomery, Bucks, and Philadelphia — are listed as having moderate risk of community transmission.

As of Tuesday, Union County is the only county listed as having substantial community transmission risk.