From staff reports
The state Department of Health on Monday said one COVID-19 case attributed to Clarion County has been taken off the county’s total number of cases. It now has 34 total cases, all of which are confirmed.
A state Health Department spokesperson, in reply to an email sent by the newspaper, said counties can have cases removed as part of case investigations.
According to Nate Wardle, the state takes information from data submitted on lab submission forms, and the data is initially entered into a database.
“Cases are identified by the county of residence, and so during our case investigation we determine what the county of residence is, and sometimes there may be corresponding data updates.”
The state also reported Venango County’s case total holds at 18 (15 confirmed and three probable) and Forest County’s case total stands at seven (five confirmed and two probable).
In addition, the state said, Mercer County has an additional case to give it 136 (115 confirmed and 21 probable) and Crawford County holds at 53 cases (42 confirmed and 11 probable).
Statewide on Monday, 492 new cases were reported – 13 fewer than the number reported Sunday -to raise the total number of cases to 85,988 (83,529 confirmed and 2,459 probable). There are 6,508 cases among health care workers.
The number of new cases marks the 50th consecutive day of fewer than 1,000 new cases reported and 54th in the past 58.
No new deaths were reported from the tri-county area on Monday. Statewide, there were eight additional deaths reported, pushing the total to 6,614.
In nursing home and personal care facility statistics, the state reported Clarion County has two resident cases and one employee case. The data received by the state came from one facility.
The state had been reporting three residents cases and one employee case from Clarion County, and that the information came from two facilities.
According to the most recent statewide data on nursing and personal care facilities, there are 17,697 resident cases and 3,224 cases among employees, for a total of 20,921 at 689 distinct facilities in 52 counties.
The state said there were three additional statewide deaths reported from nursing or personal care facilities on Monday, raising the total to 4,531.
The state is reporting a statewide recovery rate of 78%.
The number of people in the tri-county area who have tested negative for the virus is 2,304, according to the state.
Statewide, there are 666,901 people who have tested negative.
Statistics from the state, area health systems or officials could vary.
Area health systems
– UPMC Northwest on Monday reported the hospital had collected 659 specimens for COVID-19 testing through Sunday, including 369 at the hospital’s Reno collection site. A total of eight tests were positive for the virus.
As of Monday, the hospital had no COVID-19 in-patients.
– Butler Health System on Monday reported Clarion Hospital had conducted 1,531 total tests through Tuesday, including 1,019 tests at the hospital’s outdoor facility. A total of 40 tests were positive for the virus.
As of Monday, Clarion Hospital had no COVID-19 in-patients.
BHS now offers SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing that had received Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization.
According to BHS, the test has a confirmed 100% positive agreement (sensitivity) and 99.6% negative agreement (specificity), and at 18 days post-PCR confirmed positive test. A provider’s order is required for testing.