Burks Health Professionals Respond to European Trends in COVID Management – ​​Reading Eagle

Earlier this week, health officials in Burkes County announced that European countries could withdraw from the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic and adopt policies in line with the management of illnesses such as influenza and measles. It reacted.

Dr. Michael Baxter, Chair of the Berks County COVID and Berks County Medical Association COVID Panel, said:

“Even if our current pandemic moves into the endemic stage, there will continue to be concerns that mutations in the virus could lead to new pandemics.

“We know that new variants will almost certainly occur. What we don’t know is that these potential new variants contribute to healthcare facilities, infection rates, and ever-increasing mortality. It’s an effect. “

Baxter has aroused personal responsibility.

“… We as members of a larger community that enable us all to better manage and anticipate current and future outbreaks and allow us all to live and enjoy a more normal life. You must be aware of your responsibilities, especially vaccination and safe behavior. “

Tower Health has issued a statement due to Dr. Debra Powell, Head of Infectious Diseases Department at Leading Hospital. Appropriate masking and social distance practice. … We understand that these recommendations will change as the pandemic process progresses and our understanding of the virus changes, and we will continue to follow the recommendations from the CDC and other health authorities. “

Daily case

Throughout Berks County and Pennsylvania, cases and hospitalizations for the Omicron variant were firmly down. In Burks, even more so with the Saturday update. Pennsylvania Health Department Pandemic Dashboard..

Burkes added 491 cases and reinfections in a pandemic dashboard update by the State Health Department, bringing the total number of pandemic cases to 95,960.

The 7-day and 14-day averages continued to decline at 686 and 850, respectively.

Berks County COVID Dashboard

The 7th is on a downward trend from January 11th, and the 14th is on a downward trend from January 16th.

Before December, there is still a long way to go to reach pre-Omicron variant levels.

The average smoothes the uneven processing of test results. Saturday updates cover statistics from Friday.

Pennsylvania added a total of 17,623 COVID cases and reinfections, bringing the total pandemic to over 2.56 million.

It was the fifth day, below 20,000, after the first 17 days of the month exceeded 20,000.

Burks accounted for almost 2.8% of the state’s cases. The county has 3.3% of the state’s population.

hospitalization

According to the dashboard, the number of COVID patients at Burks Hospital dropped from 5 to 192, and the number of patients in the intensive care unit plummeted from 28 to 21.

The Number of hospitalizations in Burks According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it has fallen to 139 in the last seven days.

It fell below 140 for the first time in almost two months. The enrollment surge was 169 in mid-December, peaking in seven days.

Throughout Pennsylvania, the number of COVID cases decreased by 428 to 6,534. The total is about 1,000 less than the surge peak reached on January 14.

The number of ICUs decreased by 66 to 1,040.

Dead (number)

The category of COVID deaths has not declined as rapidly as cases and hospitalizations.

Of the 125 deaths reported state-wide by the Ministry of Health, there were 5 Burks residents.

Burkes’ pandemic total reached 132 that month and 1,452 in the pandemic. The total pandemic of the state was up to 39,487.

Despite the surge in deaths from COVID in January, the surge in the spring of 2020 or the winter of a year ago has not yet approached the number of casualties in the first few months of the pandemic.

Burks coroners reported deaths from COVID on Monday, a total of 1,326 so far. The coroner’s office reports deaths within Burks, including non-resident scores not counted against Burks in state reports.

State reports, on the other hand, include scores for Burks residents who died outside the county, usually not far away.

Weekly dashboard

Omicron’s surge made a weekly look at the Ministry of Health Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard From a pandemic record set a week ago.

Burkes had minus 2,466 COVID cases in the week ending Thursday and the week ending January 13. This is after a weekly increase of 840 and 2,346.

The infection rate dropped significantly from 1,407 to 881 per 100,000. The positive rate, a measure of positiveness for all tests, dropped to 39.6%, falling below 40% for the first time in three weeks.

These statistics are well above any week until mid-December, even after a sharp drop. The high community spread is 100 per 100,000, and Burks and Pennsylvania can be quite a few weeks away.

In Pennsylvania as a whole, COVID cases in the week ending Thursday decreased by 48,431 compared to the week ending January 13, and the increase of 15,664 and 55,671 in the previous two weeks was partially eliminated. ..

The infection rate has decreased from 1,237 to 890 per 100,000. The positive rate dropped from 35.3% to 31.0%.

On the dashboard, all of the populous counties decreased in proportion to COVID cases. Increases were seen in some of the less populated counties.

One of the biggest declines was in nearby Lehigh County, which was the state leader in case rates and aggressiveness. The county decreased by 5,392 cases per week, with an infection rate of 960 per 100,000 and a positive rate of 38.3%.

This is a dramatic improvement from the pandemic record of 2,391 cases per 100,000 one week ago, with a positive rate of nearly 49%.

Lehi has about 20,000 fewer residents than Burks, and Pennsylvania has the tenth largest population after Burks.

The Early Warning Dashboard is based solely on the PCR, which is a nasal swab test. Prior to the Delta Serge, Burkes had a much higher percentage of non-PCR tests than the state average.

At that time, Berks results on the Early Warning Dashboard were biased in proportion to the number of tests counted. Since then, the percentage of Burks has fallen and the percentage of states has increased, so the image of Burks compared to the states has become more accurate.

Incident between children

As the general population reduced COVID cases and reinfections, so did pediatric cases.

In Burks, there were 276 reinfections in children under 5 years of age and 1,012 in children up to 18 years of age.

Both categories decreased from the previous week, with a total of 1,288, well below the previous week’s pandemic high of 1,672.

Similarly, across the state, there were 7,316 younger people and 26,300 older people, for a total of 33,616 people. In both categories, there was a significant decrease, as was the total number from the previous week’s pandemic record of 41,119.

The state began tracking younger age groups from the week ending August 16.

The cumulative total of Burks is 1,841 and 7,646, respectively, for a total of 9,487. The entire state is 48,708 and 215,122 respectively, for a total of 263,830.

Burks accounted for almost 3.6% of all cases in the state.

Flu update

The number of new influenza cases across Burks and Pennsylvania continues to decline.

Burks reported 162 cases in the week leading up to January 15, and Pennsylvania reported a total of 2,332 cases.

Both are in a two-week decline, as the numbers peaked in the week ending January 1.

This flu season lags far behind other recent seasons in case count, but not at the level of the 2020-21 season, which is almost nonexistent.

Details from the health department:

• To date, a total of 28,475 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza have been reported. Confirmed reports were received from all 67 counties.

• Emergency department visits related to influenza-like illness increased slightly last week.

• A total of 16 flu-related deaths have been reported during the season. That was a two increase from the previous week.

• Number of deaths by age group: 0 years old, 18 years old or younger. 2, 18 to 49; 4, 50 to 64; The other 10 were over 65 years old.

Burks, with 1,096 cases of influenza, makes up about 3.8% of the state’s total this season. It is unknown whether any of the dead were due to Burks residents.

COVID at Burks

491: New cases and reinfection

95,960: Pandemic total

850: 14-day average

1,452: Pandemic death, state

1,326: Pandemic death, coroner

192: hospitalization

twenty one: ICU count

242,202: Complete vaccination (CDC)