Pennsylvania becomes 7th state to top 15K coronavirus deaths

Pennsylvania hit a grim milestone over the weekend, topping 15,000 coronavirus deaths.

On Sunday the Pennsylvania Department of Health added 127 deaths, bringing the state’s total to 15,010. And 76 more with Monday’s data now puts the total at 15,086.

The state’s first coronavirus-related death was reported March 18. The state later hit 1,000 deaths on April 19, 5,000 deaths on May 23 and 10,000 deaths on Nov. 25.

According to the Covid Tracking Project through Sunday, Pennsylvania joins six other states that have more than 15,000 covid deaths.

• New York: 29,511
• Texas: 26,472
• California: 24,220
• Florida: 21,514
• New Jersey: 18,630
• Illinois: 17,336

The state added 8,663 new coronavirus cases over the past two days: 4,884 on Sunday and 3,779 on Monday. Those new cases bring the state’s total to 613,804. The statewide percent positivity for the week of Dec. 18-24 was 15.1%.

Allegheny County had the most new cases in the region with 193, but the highest totals were reported in the eastern half of the state: Montgomery (314), Lancaster (230), Delaware (224), Bucks (211) and York (205). Here’s how the rest of southwest Pennsylvania fared, with changes from Sunday:

• Allegheny: 51,453 (+193)
• Armstrong: 3,226 (+17)
• Beaver: 7,991 (+12)
• Butler: 8,760 (+44)
• Fayette: 6,688 (+17)
• Indiana: 3,846 (+5)
• Somerset: 4,593 (+22)
• Washington: 8,438 (+48)
• Westmoreland: 18,389 (+91)

According to the state’s covid-19 dashboard, there are currently 5,995 coronavirus patients hospitalized in the state, a growth of 90 from Sunday’s 5,905. The state has 5,693 ventilators, with 1,919 in use, including 715 by covid-19 patients. There are currently 1,174 coronavirus patients in intensive care units around the state, with 13.4% of the state’s ICU beds available.

With numbers updated over the holidays, Pennsylvania also reported its first day with more than 200 deaths actually occurring on that day — 201 on Dec. 9. Before the latest surge in cases, the high mark for deaths had been 184, set on April 25. There have already been four days in December to top that: Dec. 8 (198), Dec. 9 (201), Dec. 10 (186) and Dec. 11 (194), with Dec. 12-18 all at 160 or more, and likely to climb.

Every day from Nov. 22 to Dec. 20 has seen more 100 or more deaths, and the rest of December is likely to grow because of the lag time between the deaths and the report from the state. For example, here’s when the 76 deaths reported Monday actually happened:

• Dec. 6: 1
• Dec. 11: 1
• Dec. 14: 2
• Dec. 15: 3
• Dec. 16: 3
• Dec. 17: 4
• Dec. 18: 6
• Dec. 19: 14
• Dec. 20: 11
• Dec. 21: 13
• Dec. 24: 11
• Dec. 25: 4
• Dec. 26: 3