COVID Cases at Lowest Point since Last Year, County Officials Say, but Flattening Vaccine Numbers are a Concern
The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 116 new cases in total last week. The seven day average of new cases stood at 12 per day, officials said, saying the overall infection rate number since May 1, has declined 90 percent.
The number of COVID-infected patients in Bucks County hospitals fell to 13 last week, including four patients on ventilators – the fewest hospitalizations since early November, health officials reported.
Deaths attributed to COVID are still occurring in Bucks – 41 in May, seven so far in June – but at a much lower rate than earlier in the pandemic, the county says.
County official though are pushing, and hoping, vaccine rates will increase in the coming days, but notes requests for shots have declined.
Even though the overall hospitalization numbers are way down, the people who are still getting very sick are almost all unvaccinated,” said Dr. David Damsker, director of the Bucks County Health Department. “Anyone who is older, immunosuppressed, obese or otherwise at higher risk of disease, absolutely needs to get vaccinated. In those risk categories, there shouldn’t be a debate.”
Providers throughout Bucks County have administered a total of 589,666 doses of vaccine, enough to fully vaccinate 269,400 people and partially vaccinate 74,852.
Those numbers are equivalent to 49 percent of the 12-and-older population in Bucks County being fully vaccinated, and 65 percent having received at least one dose of vaccine.
About 43 percent of the total county population has been fully vaccinated, while 55 percent has received at least an initial dose.
The county’s test positivity rate, which exceeded 17 percent a few months ago, is now down to 1.1 percent.
Bucks County’s four mass vaccination sites remain open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday through July 3, when sites at the Perkasie and Newtown campuses of Bucks County Community College will close. Clinics at Neshaminy Mall and the Warwick Square shopping center will continue to operate on a reduced schedule, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, when the county reopens July 6 after the holiday weekend.
Shots are available at all sites without appointments required. All locations offer both the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the two-dose Pfizer vaccine.
To see an interactive map showing Bucks County’s COVID testing locations, please click here.
To see an interactive map showing Bucks County cases reported in the past 30 days, please click here.
Statistics, charts, links to state health department data and other coronavirus-related information can be found on the county’s data portal: https://covid19-bucksgis.hub.arcgis.com.
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