Commonwealth of Pennsylvania microbiologist Kerry Pollard performs a manual extraction of the coronavirus within the extraction laboratory at the Pennsylvania Department of Health Laboratory Office. Photo from the Office of the Governor of Pennsylvania.
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The Pennsylvania Department of Health discovered that 24 cases of a recent one-day spike in new COVID-19 positives in Center County were invalid and removed them from the county total on Thursday.
On Sunday, DOH reported 43 new cases in Center County, nearly four times the county’s previous day’s high. Mount Nittany Health noted the unusual increase in positive results late last week and contacted DOH to coordinate the review of the tests and retesting.
“As the Pennsylvania Department of Health determined that several of the positive test results were invalid, we reevaluated people and … reviewing those results … [led] to a series of cases that were removed from the case count for Center County, “DOH spokesman Maggi Mumma wrote Thursday in an email.” In all, 24 cases were removed from the County Center count because of this. “
Mount Nittany Health sends the collected samples to external laboratories for analysis and the cause of the invalid results was unclear.
“We use multiple commercial laboratories to carry out the COVID-19 tests, and we closely monitor and review the results returned to us,” Dr. Nirmal Joshi, Medical Director of Mount Nittany. said Wednesday. “When we received an unusually high number of positive results on Friday, we immediately alerted the Health Department and put in place a plan to quickly reassess these people over the weekend.”
The health department reported Thursday that Center County has had 353 cases since the first was reported on March 20. It had listed 370 on Wednesday, so removing the 24 invalid cases means the county added seven new positives on Thursday.
The county also had 152 new negative results, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. A total of 8,382 Center County patients have tested negative for the virus.
In the past two weeks, Center County has added a total of 91 COVID-19 cases.
County nursing and personal care cases remained unchanged, with 33 among residents and 18 among employees at five centers.
Two COVID-19 patients in Center County are hospitalized as of 2 pm Thursday. In Pennsylvania, 756 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized and 104 require the use of a ventilator.
Statewide, the health department reported 860 new positives, increasing Pennsylvania’s total to 111,078. Thursday’s numbers include 132 new cases in Allegheny County and 127 in Philadelphia.
A total of 1,088,859 patients in Pennsylvania tested negative, an increase of 14,996 from Wednesday. In the past seven days, 163,936 COVID-19 tests have been administered in Pennsylvania with 6,822 positive results.
An estimated 75% of COVID-19 patients in the state, approximately 83,309, have recovered, according to a DOH calculation.
The health department also reported 14 new deaths attributed to the virus statewide, bringing the Pennsylvania total to 7,176. DOH lists a total of 10 COVID-19 deaths for Center County, although the Center County Coroner’s Office has confirmed seven. The most recent death of COVID-19 was reported in the county. Tuesday to a 91-year-old nursing home resident.
Among the state’s total cases, 107,958 are confirmed and 3,120 are probable. In Center County, 314 are confirmed and 39 are probable.
Center County cases by zip code, based on available DOH data:
* Note: Specific numbers for zip codes with 1-4 cases are drawn up by the health department.
16801 (State College): 72 confirmed [-9], 10 likely [+1]
16823 (Bellefonte): 59 confirmed [-3], 8 probable
16803 (State College): 48 confirmed [-3], 6 probable
16875 (Spring Mills): 18 confirmed
16841 (Howard): 15 confirmed [-2], 1-4 probable
16827 (Boalsburg): 15 confirmed
16866 (Philipsburg): 15 confirmed
16870 (Port Matilda): 13 confirmed
16828 (Center Hall): 9 confirmed [-1], 1-4 probable
16853 (Milesburg): 6 confirmed
16802 (University Park), 16804 (State College), 16820 (Aaronsburg), 16826 (Blanchard), 16829 (Clarence), 16832 (Coburn), 16844 (Julian), 16845 (Karthaus), 16851 (Lemont), 16852 (Madisonburg ), 16854 (Millheim), 16856 (Mingoville), 16865 (Pennsylvania oven), 16868 (Pine Grove Mills), 16872 (Rebersburg), 16874 (snowshoes), 16877 (warrior’s mark), and 16882 (Woodward) each has 1-4 confirmed or probable cases.
Among the bordering counties of Center County, Huntingdon now has 287 cases in total, Blair has 201 [+2]Union has 135 [+6]Clearfield is 122 [+2]Clinton is 113 [+1] and Mifflin is 98 [+5].
