Delaware County Moves Out Of Coronavirus 'Red' Zone

DELAWARE COUNTY, PA — Delaware County is one of more than two dozen to have been removed from the state's "red" zone designation for coronavirus severity.

The latest report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force shows 27 counties in Pennsylvania have shifted from "red" to "orange."

Among those counties is Delaware County.

As of Thursday, Delaware County has had 34,432 positive cases of the coronavirus and 1,170 coronavirus-related deaths. The county's positivity rate last week dropped to 8.2 percent.

The report, released Jan. 24, classifies 40 of the state's 67 counties as being in the red zone. There are 17 counties in the "orange" zone and 10 in the "yellow" zone.

Other Philadelphia-area counties that have been designated "red" are Montgomery, Chester, Philadelphia. Bucks, Berks and Lehigh remain in the red zone.

Counties that are in red zones have more than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents and a diagnostic test positivity result of above 10 percent. Counties in the orange zone reported between 51 and 100 new cases per 100,000 residents and a diagnostic test positivity result between 8 and 10 percent.

Yellow zone designated counties have reported between 10 and 50 new cases per 100,000 residents and a diagnostic test positivity result between 5 and 7.9 percent.

The latest report shows a 23 percent increase in new cases statewide from the week before, as well as a decrease in the test positivity rate. The state's test positivity rate stands at 10 as of Jan. 24, the report says. That's a decline of 2.1 percent.

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations in Pennsylvania are also down. The report notes there were 6,802 new hospitalizations for the seven-day period ending Jan. 22. That's an 11 percent decline from the previous seven-day period ending on Jan. 15.

See the full Jan. 24 report here.

Story by Kara Seymour