Chester County's COVID-19 Transmission Risk Still Substantial, Cases In Younger Residents

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — COVID-19 in Chester County is being held at bay, with case counts dropping slightly in the past week and other metrics holding steady while transmission risk is still Substantial here.

Chester County Health Department's most recent report said on Sept. 10 the County was at Substantial COVID-19 transmission risk. Substantial level means incidence rate is between 50 and 99 per 100,000 residents and percent positivity is between 8 and 9.9 percent.

The incidence rate per 100,000 residents in Chester County fell in the most recent week-to-week comparison, from 111.6 on Sept. 3 to 94.5 in the week ended Sept. 10, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported.

Chester County's positivity rate remained flat at 6.4 percent from the week ended Sept. 3 to the week ended Sept. 10.

When the county and state health departments determine transmission level, if the two data points suggest different transmission levels, the higher level is selected, the Chester County Health Department explained.

The average weekly new case count in the county over the past four weeks was 510 per week, and the average weekly incidence rate over the past four weeks was 97 per 100,000 residents. Percent positivity among COVID-19 tests given averaged 6.0 percent over those same four weeks.

But the most recent week showed slight improvements. New cases of COVID-19 fell by 90 over the past seven days from 586 for the week ended Sept. 3 to 496 in the week ended Sept. 10, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Children have returned to school and they remain among the unvaccinated population in Chester County; the PA DOH has published counts of COVID-19 cases for children by age. In Chesco, since Aug. 16 when schools began opening fall semesters, 118 children ages 0-4 have tested positive for COVID-19 and 457 ages 5-8 have tested positive in that four-week period.

By age, the bulk of COVID-19 case in the past month in Chester County have been in adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s. People 20-29 here had 323 positive COVID-19 tests in the past four weeks, people 30-39 had the most at 353 in the last month, and people 40-49 had 313 positive tests in the past month, according to the Chester County Health Department's Sept. 10 report. Numbers were lowest for the older County residents, with 159 cases reported in the last month for all age groups over 70.

Hospitalizations and persons on ventilators for COVID-19 both went up. Average daily hospitalizations for COVID-19 was 37.3 in the week ended Sept. 3 and rose to 40.9 in the week ended Sept. 10, the PA DOH reported. Persons on ventilators in Chesco went from 3.7 to 5.0 in that same week-to-week comparison.

In Chester County, 67 percent of eligible residents have had at least one vaccine dose for COVID-19 and 58 percent are fully vaccinated, the County Health Department reported Sept. 10.

Nine persons have died of COVID-19 in Chester County in the past month, and in the course of the pandemic, COVID-19 has caused 837 deaths, the County reports. Statewide, 28,651 have died of COVID-19.

An interactive map published by the state Health Department shows COVID-19 case counts by ZIP Code.

Make sure you know what's happening in your town. Sign up to get Patch emails and don't miss any local news: https://patch.com/subscribe.