Keith Mayer: Berks hammered with COVID cases again; hospitalizations at delta high

Dec. 4—The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over in Berks County, Pennsylvania and nationally, according to the latest statistics available Saturday, showing another strong wave of cases developing and Berks at ground zero in the state surge.

Berks was pummeled with 511 cases and reinfections in the Saturday update of the Pennsylvania Department of Health pandemic dashboard as hospitalizations set a record for the delta variant surge.

The pandemic is nearing the 21-month mark in Berks and Pa., with the delta-variant surge ending its 21st week and gaining strength.

There is no information yet to say whether the omicron variant is playing a role in the explosion of cases in Berks.

The 511 cases is the third-highest daily total of the pandemic, and the 508 in the Thursday update is the fourth-highest total of the pandemic.

The highest daily total of 1,465 on Jan. 31 was largely a data dump of backlogged cases, and 550 cases were reported April 13 in the spring surge.

The Berks pandemic total Saturday raced to 66,147.

The state does not keep a separate accounting of reinfections, but the initial dump of them into the statistics last month and studies from the medical community suggest that the rate of reinfection is about 1%.

A reinfection is considered a positive test result more than 90 days after an initial positive. There is no deeper data on the whole process. It's unclear how many times one individual can be counted.

The Saturday case update sent the seven- and 14-day averages to delta record levels of 301 and 247 for Berks, respectively.

The averages smooth the uneven processing of test results and provide a trend.

The dashboard update is a composite of the previous day's statistics, in this case Friday.

Pennsylvania overall posted 9,264 more cases and reinfections on Saturday. It was second in the delta surge to 10,127 on Friday, which was the most since Jan. 7.

The pandemic total pushed past 1.77 million on Saturday.

Berks had 5.5% of the state COVID cases, far higher than its 3.3 percent of the population.

A year ago, before vaccines, there was a similar upswing in cases as the winter surge began its path of destruction. But this year is even ahead of that curve.

On Dec. 5, 2020, the case averages were 260 and 225, respectively.

Related statistics

The age group with the most cases and reinfections in Berks is young adults in their 20s at nearly 11,000 of the county's 66,000-plus total, with the 30s age group close behind, followed by the 50s and the 40s, according to the health department.

Cases among children under age 10 have increased in recent weeks and the 10-19 age group has a pandemic total of 7,900-plus, more than 1,000 cases ahead of the 60s age group.

The number of cases overall among Berks children and youth through Nov. 30 was off the record total set the week earlier.

But the number of preschool children under age 5 sickened with COVID was the most yet in a week at 69. Along with 201 cases among youths age 5 to 18, the total for the week was 270, down about 30 from the record week.

Those numbers were before the late week explosion of cases.

Pennsylvania overall also backed away from a record week of cases among children and youth, with 1,480 in the younger age group and 6,574 in the older age group for a total of 8,054, about 1,500 fewer than the record week.

Those numbers also were before the late week explosion of cases.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is listing a national surge in cases as well, with a seven-day average that has passed 96,000. That number is well off the delta low of about 64,000 over a week.

Weekly comparison

Berks County contributed significantly to the overall state increase in cases showing up in the weekly Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard of the state health department.

The county had an increase of 258 cases for the week ending Thursday versus the week ending Nov. 25.

The other statistics included an infection rate of 327 per 100,000 population and a pandemic record 19.8% positivity rate, the measure of positives versus all tests.

Pennsylvania overall had an increase of 1,539 cases, with an infection rate at 277 per 100,000 and a positivity rate at 15.3%.

Other nearby counties with an acceleration of cases: Lehigh, Luzerne and Northampton.

Hospitalizations

More cases means more hospitalizations and Saturday's state health department update showed Berks up to 142 COVID hospitalizations, an increase of 13 from Friday's previous delta record.

The number of patients in the ICU was 21, down one from Friday.

The winter high-water mark for COVID patients in Berks was slightly over 200.

The number of Pennsylvania's COVID hospitalizations crossed the 4,000 threshold in the Saturday update, reaching 4,044 with 881 in the ICU, both delta highs.

The winter high-water mark for COVID patients in Pa. was about 4,400.

Tower Health updated its dashboard for Reading Hospital late Friday, showing the facility was up to 92 COVID patients of the roughly 700 available beds.

Of the 92, 71 were unvaccinated and 21 were vaccinated. The intensive care portion of the COVID patients was nine, all but one unvaccinated.

There were also 10 discharges and no deaths reported since the prior update.

Penn State Health update for St. Joseph hospital earlier Friday was 37 total patients, 25 not fully vaccinated and 12 fully vaccinated.

Vaccinated at Tower Health means completion of the process of two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna products or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Any status less than that is not vaccinated. Penn State Health adds two weeks to the definition, meaning two weeks beyond the completion of the process.

The timing among the state's reports and the hospitals' reports makes it difficult to reconcile the figures.

The state health department issues data on cases, hospitalizations and deaths regarding vaccination status once a month and the next report is likely a couple weeks away.

Deaths

In the state dashboard update, there were four Berks residents among the 113 COVID deaths reported statewide Saturday by the health department.

The pandemic total for Berks reached 1,219. The Pennsylvania total was up to 33,859.

The Berks County coroner's total of deaths within Berks is 1,157. The office reports on Tuesday and Friday.

The coroner's office reports deaths within Berks as they occur and the state reports deaths of Berks residents wherever they occur when the paperwork reaches the records office.

A snapshot of state pandemic statistics shows few deaths in Berks under age 30.

The heaviest toll is among on the older age groups where about 1 in 7 diagnosed cases in Berks of people in their 80s has ended in death, statistics show.

For those in their 90s it's about 1 in 3.5.

The older age groups are also the most heavily vaccinated.

The CDC's death total is also showing a national upturn with the highest seven-day average since Nov. 23.

Vaccinations

The dashboard portion of the state's daily update was not yet available Saturday

The Reading Eagle has discontinued use of the CDC's vaccination numbers until a statistical cleanup process initiated by the state health department last month filters through to the CDC statistics.

The health department is running a free COVID testing site through Dec. 11 in the parking lot of Direct Link Technologies, 2561 Bernville Road, just north of Reading Regional Airport in Bern Township. It is accessed via Van Reed Road.

The testing site will be open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Vaccinations statistics updated Friday showed Berks at 55.5% of the eligible population fully covered, 25th in the state, lower than the state average of 57.3%.

The eligible population starts at age 5.

In Berks, the gender breakdown is 58.2% of eligible females fully inoculated and 50.7% of eligible males. Females have been widening that gap in recent months.

The counties with heavy outbreaks of COVID cases this week are all higher than Berks in terms of rates, with Lehigh the second-highest in the state at 68.6% of its residents fully inoculated.

But nearby Chester and Montgomery counties also have high rates of vaccinations and have not seen surging case numbers.

Flu update

The latest flu season continued to build, with the health department saying this for the period ending Nov. 27:

—Influenza A and B are identified by laboratory testing, however influenza A is the predominant type.

—A total of 2,919 laboratory-confirmed influenza cases have been reported season to date.

—Confirmed reports were received from 55 counties out of the 67 counties.

—Emergency department visits associated with influenza-like illness has increased slightly than last week and is higher than this same week last year.

—There have been two influenza-associated confirmed deaths reported this season, both in the 65-plus age group

It's unclear if Berks is among the counties with a flu case.

COVID in Berks

511: New cases and reinfections

66,147: Pandemic total

247: 14-day average

1,219: Pandemic deaths, state

1,157: Pandemic deaths, coroner

142: Hospitalized

21: ICU count

220,500: Fully vaccinated