Westmoreland County added 63 new covid-19 cases on Monday, according to a report by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. In addition, 73 new cases were added on Sunday.
It’s the first time since Wednesday the county has not had consecutive days of triple-digit new cases.
Compared with other counties, the daily positivity rate of cases in Westmoreland County has been quite high. Last week, the county averaged between a 18%-22% positivity rate for new tests. Sunday and Monday’s tests were lower, with an 15.5% rate on Sunday, and a 15.22% rate Monday.
Westmoreland County has processed an average of 438 tests per day over the past week. In that time, its positivity rate was 21%. As a point of comparison, Lehigh County’s population (345,676 in 2020) is the most similar to Westmoreland’s in the state. Testing there averages about the same (about 450 per day), but Lehigh’s positivity rates are much lower — averaging about 5%-6% over the past week.
To date, 48,722 Westmoreland County residents have tested negative for the virus.
Over the past two days, two new covid-related deaths were announced in the county, with one each on Sunday and Monday. To date, 71 county residents have died of covid-related illness.
Despite the most-recent decline, cases in Westmoreland County have been coming much faster in October. The county took 117 days to reach its first 1,000 cases, 65 days to reach 2,000 and only 28 days to hit 3,000. At its current pace, the county could reach the 4,000-case mark in just 10 days.
Over the past 10 days, Westmoreland County has seen 870 new cases of the virus. Of those new cases, over 61% (533) have come from four areas of the county — Greensburg, Irwin, Latrobe and Jeannette.
According to the state’s covid-19 tracking website, there are 40 residents of Westmoreland County currently hospitalized with the virus, with four of them on ventilators. According to the state, there are 88 operational ventilators in the county, with 15 (17%) currently in use for all illnesses.
Editor’s Note: The positivity rates have been updated. They were incorrectly calculated when this story first published.
