Health & Fitness
Percentage Of Positive COVID Cases Fell This Week In Chesco
The COVID-19 case count is still climbing in Chester County, but the spread of coronavirus slowed a bit in the week of Thanksgiving.
CHESTER COUNTY, PA — One among the state's COVID-19 metrics showed improvement in Chester County last week. Other measures of what the coronavirus is doing among us are not as promising.
"Percent positivity" is a measure of how many COVID-19 tests are positive among the total number given in a time period, and that measure was down a bit in Chester County last week.
Chester County's positivity rate for that seven-day period fell from 8.6 percent in the previous week to 7.8 percent by Nov. 27. It's the only number that showed an improvement for the county during the week of Nov. 20 to Nov. 27, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported Friday.
Find out what's happening in West Chesterfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The total number of COVID-19 cases in Chester County went up by 107, from 1,039 cases in the previous week to 1,146 last week, according to the state DOH. Chester County's health department reports that to date, 398 persons have died from COVID-19 in the county.
The incidence rate measures cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 persons in a seven-day period. Last week's measure rose in Chester County from 199 to 219.5 per 100,000. More people were hospitalized for COVID-19 last week, compared to the previous week. Between Nov. 13 and Nov. 20, Chesco had a daily average of 54 daily hospitalizations for COVID-19; the number rose to 70 for the week of Nov. 20-27.
Find out what's happening in West Chesterfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Metrics for the state as a whole are higher than in Chester County. There were 4,044 new COVID-19 cases reported last week across the state, and the incidence rate statewide is 323.4 per 100,000. The state's positivity rate was at 11.7 percent at the end of last week, with 896 daily hospitalizations.
Neighboring Delaware County saw its total case numbers drop by 156 last week, though Delco still had a higher positivity rate than Chester County for the last week, at 10.4 percent and a higher incidence rate, at 283.8 per 100,000, as of Nov. 27. Delaware County's incidence rate fell from the previous week, when it was 311.5 per 100,000.
Delco's daily average for COVID-19 hospitalizations rose from 92 the week of Nov. 13-20, to 143 the week of Nov. 20-27.
View information reported by the Chester County Department of Health for specific townships and municipalities here.
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