Delco Residents Should Wear Masks Indoors As Cases Rise: CDC

DELAWARE COUNTY, PA — Delaware County is one of 25 counties in Pennsylvania that now has high or substantial COVID-19 spread, according to the Centers for Disease Control's most recent data released Tuesday.

This substantial spread status means both vaccinated and unvaccinated people in Delaware County should be wearing masks when indoors, the CDC says.

In Delco, a county with a population of about 566,750, 61 percent of residents are vaccinated. Recent rises in COVID-19 cases are primarily attributed to the more-contagious delta variant, which is responsible for an estimated 65.6 percent of all new cases in Pennsylvania currently, according to CDC statistics.

Here is how Delaware County fared, metric-by-metric, in the most recent Department of Health data for the week of ending July 29:

• Confirmed Cases: The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Delaware County jumped by 129 over this past week. The state counted 231 new cases between July 23 and July 29, compared to 102 the week before.
• Rate Per 100,000 People: The county's incidence rate of the coronavirus spiked as well, with 40.8 cases per 100,000 people as opposed to the prior week's 18. Like confirmed cases, this number has been rising recently.
• Positivity Rate: The rate of people who got COVID-19 PCR tests and tested positive in Bucks County was 3.2 percent last week, up from 1.8 percent the week prior. In times of more intense spread, officials had been hoping for rates below 3 percent to signal slowing spread.
• Average Daily Hospitalizations: The daily number of hospitalizations also went up from 4.1 to 6.6.
• Patients On Ventilators: The number of patients on ventilators is 0, which is the same from the week prior.
• Emergency Room Visits: The percentage of hospital emergency room visits attributed to COVID-19 in Delaware County has increased to 1.3 percent, up from 1.1 percent the week prior.

Story by Kate Fishman