PA Sees Highest Daily COVID Rate In More Than 3 Months

PENNSYLVANIA — The more contagious delta variant is taking its toll on Pennsylvania. Not since mid-May, when vaccination efforts were still getting off the ground, has the virus been this prevalent statewide.

The state saw a total of 1,442 new cases on Tuesday, the Department of Health announced. According to state data, the last time numbers were that high was all way back on May 13. And there have not been more than one thousand cases recorded in a single day since May 28.

The statewide percent positivity rate is also elevated, shooting up to 3.9 percent from 2.7 percent last week. It was as low as 1.1 percent, and hung around in the low 1 percent range, as recently as late June and early July.

The delta variant is now the dominant strain of the virus in the United States. In Pennsylvania, delta now accounts for 65 percent of all new cases, according to the latest information from the CDC.

The increases have led to changes in masking recommendations from the CDC. In Pennsylvania, 25 counties are now in the "substantial" or "high" transmission category in which universal masking indoors, regardless of vaccination status, is recommended.

Hospitalization rates have also trended upwards: the average daily number of people in hospitals in the state over the last seven days increased from 289 to 418.

Among the counties now with substantial spread are the five with the largest populations, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: Philadelphia (1.6 million), Allegheny (1.2 million), Montgomery (830,000), Bucks (628,000) and Delaware (567,000).

A report from WBUR noted that many places nationwide that have seen a spike in cases are also lagging in vaccination numbers, but in Pennsylvania, this is not true. Pennsylvania has fully vaccinated 63.2 percent of its total 18 and over population, and is 8th overall in percentage of the population given at least one shot.

Health experts have said that although the risk of getting sick from the delta variant is low for those who have been fully vaccinated, its spread will delay the end of the pandemic. This is chiefly due to unvaccinated individuals; authorities have called the latest surge a "pandemic of the unvaccinated."

The delta variant, which was first seen in India and was first detected in the United States in March, spreads 50 percent faster than the alpha variant that originated in Great Britain, which itself spreads 50 percent faster than the original coronavirus strain, according to Yale Medicine.

With reporting from Patch correspondents Eric Heyl and Gillian Smith