Indiana County COVID-19 report

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported eight hospitalized COVID patients on Wednesday, up from five reported a week ago. There was one death reported in the county, bringing the total to 371.

Wastewater surveillance for July 24-30 is indicating an increasing presence of COVID-19.

The CDC reports that the community risk level for Indiana County has been elevated to medium. Cambria County is unchanged at medium risk. The risk level for several counties in and around Allegheny County has been elevated to high risk, including Butler, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

The CDC recommendations for medium risk are to stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines and to get tested if you have symptoms. People with symptoms, a positive test or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should wear a mask. People may choose to mask at any time.

The COVID-19 community risk levels are reported weekly by the CDC and are determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions and the total number of COVID cases.

VACCINE DATA

Indiana County is seeing very little increase in vaccinations as vaccine hesitancy continues to be an issue. As reported by the DOH on Wednesday, the county is one of the lowest in the state in the percentage of population vaccinated, ranking 58 of 67 counties; 50.7 percent of the eligible population of Indiana County has received at least one dose of the vaccine. Note that the eligible population has increased by 3,884 to include the age group of 0-4.

The percentage of eligible population getting the booster vaccine is also low with 51.2 percent of those fully vaccinated having received the booster, and 20.4 percent of those having received the first booster have received the second booster.

The vaccination rate continues to be lowest among the younger population with 80.4 percent of those ages 5-19 unvaccinated. There were 478 total vaccinations reported for ages 5-19 during the two months of Dec. 10, 2021, to Feb. 11, 2022, and only seven total vaccinations during the six-month period of Feb. 11 to Aug. 3, 2022.

Data for young adults over the last week shows seven vaccinations administered to those ages 5 to 19. There were no vaccines administered last week to those ages 20 to 24.

Vaccinations for age 0-4 are now being reported with four administered last week for a total of 44 administered.

Source: This report is compiled by Ron Riley for The Indiana Gazette with data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and IUP COVID dashboard.