Luzerne County’s coronavirus statistics improved this week in all five benchmarks tracked by the state health department, an update released Friday shows.
The county had 553 new confirmed coronavirus cases reported this week, or 132 less than the 685 new cases logged two weeks ago.
As a result, the number of cases per 100,000 residents, or county incidence rate, decreased from 215.8 to 174.2 over the two-week period.
In another key benchmark, the county’s positivity rate — the percentage of diagnostic tests yielding positive results — dipped below 10%, decreasing from 10.4% two weeks ago to a new 8.5%.
Hospitalizations and ventilator use also dropped in the county.
An average 90.9 residents were hospitalized daily for COVID-19 this week, or 13.5 less than two weeks ago, said the report posted at www.health.pa.gov.
Of those hospitalized, an average daily 7.1 county residents were on ventilators, a decrease of 3.5 from the previous week’s 10.6.
Finally, the county’s percentage of hospital visits tied to coronavirus-like illnesses was lowered from 0.8% to 0.4% over the two weeks.
The report compares data from the weeks ending Thursday and Feb. 4. The state launched the dashboard at the end of June.
Despite these positive signs, the county’s numbers are still high compared to the summer.
Seven months ago for example, the county had 50 new cases in the week ending July 16. The incidence rate was 15.7.
The other county statistics for that week:
• Positivity rate: 1.9%
• Average daily hospitalizations: 8.4
• Patients on ventilators: 0.6
Statewide numbers
The state improved in four benchmark categories and remained the same in the fifth, according to the new report.
There were 19,621 additional confirmed cases this week, or 1,194 less than the 20,815 reported two weeks ago.
This reduced the state’s incidence rate from 162.6 to 153.3, it said.
The statewide positivity rate dropped slightly from 8.6% to 8%.
An average daily 2,806 coronavirus hospitalizations were reported statewide this week — a decrease of 463.6, the report said.
On average, there were 307 hospitalized residents on ventilators each day this week, a reduction of 93.3.
The percentage of hospital visits due to coronavirus-like illnesses remained at 0.6% during the two-week period.