Lycoming County retained its status among the 89.47% of all counties in the United States currently with high levels of community transmission of COVID-19.

It comes amid reports that cases in the United States related to last summer’s delta variant push are starting to decline.

“For the first time in a month, the percentage of US counties reporting high levels of community transmission for COVID-19 has fallen below 90%,” Barbara Hemmendinger, a retired family medicine educator and member of the Lycoming County Health Improvement Coalition, said in a written report.

Hemmendinger also said that even as the number of counties reporting high levels of community transmission began to decline, deaths from the disease were still occurring at a high rate.

“Deaths from this disease, however, are still averaging over 2,000 a day, and America earlier today hit the sad toll of 700,000 deaths from COVID.”

The vaccination rate in Lycoming County currently stands at 63.2% of residents over the age of 18 who have received at least one dose of the vaccine, with more than 50% (52.5% in total) of all county residents who have started the vaccination process. At the state level, the CDC now claims that Pennsylvania ranks fifth among US states in terms of doses administered and that 69.1% of all Pennsylvania residents over the age of 18 are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The total vaccinations administered statewide stood at 12.8 million as of October 4. Note that Philadelphia is not included in statewide totals.

Despite these totals, the most recent seven-day total infections per 100,000 population (399.83) and positivity rate (13.32%) in Lycoming County far exceed rates in Pennsylvania and the United States. COVID-19, the 14-day moving average number of hospital patients continuing to increase. There were 672 patients reported in intensive care units.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health also reports that there were 94 new deaths attributed to COVID in the state between the first and third day of October, bringing the number of COVID deaths statewide to 29,531.

“Across the UPMC system in the United States, we are treating 576 hospitalized patients who test positive for COVID-19”, said Tyler Wagner, senior director of public relations for UPMC in the north-central Pennsylvania region. “Fifty-six are here in hospitals in north central Pennsylvania, including UPMC Cole, UPMC Muncy, UPMC Lock Haven, UPMC Wellsboro and UPMC Williamsport. Due to our extensive planning and preparation, the UPMC facilities are safe and the staff are well equipped and know how to properly care for patients with COVID-19. “