Key COVID Metrics Continue Slight Rise In Montco: Latest Numbers

Norristown PA

23 September, 2021

3:38 PM

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NORRISTOWN, PA — Key coronavirus metrics are continuing to rise in Montgomery County, albeit at a more modest rate than recent months. The county's average positivity rate on tests over a 14 day period has remained nearly static at 5.69, officials announced. That's just a 0.1 percent increase over last week. However, the total overall number of cases still rose, with the seven day average up by 31 to 151, and the 14 day average up by 17 to 137. "This past week was a challenging one for Montgomery County in regards to some of our baseline COVID-19 metrics," Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh said. The 5.6 percent mark is notably better than the statewide rate of 8.9 percent. It's also an improvement over neighboring suburban areas like Delaware (6.1), Bucks (6.9), and Chester (6.4). The county has responded to the steady surge of the virus by ramping up its vaccination efforts. A new COVID-19 clinic opened this week at the King of Prussia Mall. Hours at other clinics were expanded in order to make access to an appointment more convenient for the unvaccinated. Roughly 61.6 percent of all Montgomery County eligible residents over the age of 12 have been vaccinated. About 81.5 percent have received at least one dose, which marks an increase of half a percentage point from last week. Here's a glance at other key metrics in the county, as tracked by the Department of Health's Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard. All of them show increases in the past week of data. The most recently available data covers the week from Sept. 10 to Sept. 16: The total number of new cases rose from 711 to 1,033The incidence rate per 100,000 residents increased from 92 to 124The average daily number of hospitalizations rose from 119 to 125The average daily number of patients on ventilators increased slightly from 10.1 to 10.6The percentage of emergency room visits due to coronavirus symptoms increased from 1.2 to 1.3 percentThose all mark enormous increases from less than two months ago. Since July 28, the positivity rate in the county has gone from 1.5 to 5.6 percent, while the total number of new cases went from 152 to 1,033. The hospitalization numbers, meanwhile, increased from 16 to 125.