COVID-19 Incidence Rate Jumps In Chester County This Week

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — Chester County has lagged behind neighboring Delaware and Montgomery counties in COVID-19 metrics, but the end-of-week metrics update shows it's not far behind.

Chester County's incidence rate — a measure of cases per 100,000 in the population — jumped from 85.8 to 140.6 from Nov. 6 to Nov. 13, according to the Pennsylvania State Department of Health.

The state health department updated its COVID-19 dashboard Friday, and showed 286 new confirmed COVID-19 cases between Nov. 6 and Nov. 13.

Delaware County reported 90 new confirmed cases while Montgomery County had 695 new cases in the last week. To the west of Chester County, Lancaster County reported 333 new cases.

By Nov. 13, Chester County had reported 9,427 positive tests for COVID-19 and 112,147 negative tests.

The highest incidence rate among Chester County and its neighbor is in Lancaster County, where the rate is 203.8 per 100,000 this week, up from 142.6 the week before. Montgomery County reported an incidence rate of 181.4 per 100,000 for the week ending Nov. 13, up from 108 the prior week. Delaware County's incidence rate was 150.0 per 100,00o this week, compared to 133.7 the week before.

In the last seven days Chester County's incidence rate went up from 85.8 to 140.6 per 100,000 residents.

Positivity rates did not vary as much across counties. Chester County's went up 2 full points, from 5.1 to 7.1 in the last week. Positivity rate is a measure of many tests are positive, in relation to the total number of tests given; it gives an indication of how fast the virus might be spreading.

Montgomery County's positivity rate went from 5.2 to 7.2 percent in the last week. Delco's positivity rate rose from 6.8 to 7.6 in the last week and in Lancaster County the number rose from 6.4 to 9.1 percent between Nov. 6 and Nov. 13.

Five people have died of COVID-19 in the last month in Chester County, according to the Chester County Health Department's reports, and in all 384 have died in the county of COVID-19. The recovery rate here is 76.84 percent.