The state Health Department on Wednesday said there are 849 more cases of the coronavirus, and the data also shows a sharp drop in the number of people hospitalized for the virus in Lehigh County.
There are now 121,130 cases of coronavirus in the state since the pandemic began.
The state’s data dashboard shows there were 11 people hospitalized for the coronavirus at midday Wednesday in Lehigh County and two in Northampton County. On Tuesday afternoon, those figures were 29 in Lehigh County and two in Northampton County.
Asked about the large drop, Health Department spokesman Nate Wardle said it believes the data on the website is correct.
“We have been working each day to make sure this data is complete, and accurate,” Wardle said.
On July 31, the state website showed an abrupt 30% decline in the number of people hospitalized statewide with the coronavirus, with the number of patients going from 756 to 522 in the space of a few hours.
Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine subsequently said the change was due to a change in reporting requirements for hospitals requested by the White House.
Previously, she said, hospitals reported their coronavirus patient data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Pennsylvania government using a specific database. Under a new approach, the White House is requiring hospitals to report to the Department of Health and Human Services, rather than the CDC, and also to use a different database, Levine said.
Wardle said Wednesday that the reporting change probably played no role in latest decline in Lehigh County hospitalizations.
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Statewide, the number of people hospitalized around midday Wednesday was 606, little changed from the figures of the previous three days.
The counties with the largest number of added virus cases on Wednesday were Philadelphia, 90; Delaware, 89; Allegheny, 70; Luzerne, 49; and Bucks, 44.
Twelve counties had no new cases. Sullivan County has had no new cases in 39 days.
There are 30 more cases in Lehigh County, bringing the total there to 5,022, and 12 in Northampton, bringing that county’s total to 3,956.
The 10-county northeast region that includes Lehigh and Northampton counties added 108 cases Wednesday, following a string of 13 days where the region had fewer than 100 new cases each day.
The totals include both confirmed and probable cases. Confirmed cases are those testing positive for the coronavirus. Among the scenarios that would lead to a probable case is one in which the individual has not been tested but shows symptoms and has had close contact with a confirmed case.
The state added 33 more deaths from the coronavirus, bringing the total statewide to 7,385. Of those, 5,012 ? or nearly 68% ? have occurred among residents of nursing home or personal care facilities.
One of the newly reported deaths was in Northampton County, pushing the toll there to 293. Lehigh County has had 338 deaths.
Morning Call Capitol correspondent Ford Turner can be reached at fturner@mcall.com
