Pennsylvania hits 1 million mark on full covid vaccinations

Pennsylvania surpassed 1 million residents fully vaccinated on Wednesday, according to the state’s department of health.

As of Wednesday morning, the state’s covid-19 vaccine dashboard shows there have been 1,016,979 fully vaccinated and 1,094,679 people partially vaccinated.

The state figures do not include Philadelphia County, which is handling its own vaccine distribution program.

Philadelphia has administered 124,578 second doses and nearly 300,000 first doses. Allegheny County has the second most fully vaccinated people in the state, at 97,491, with 146,320 partially vaccinated.

Four other counties in the region have more than 10,000 people fully vaccinated: Westmoreland (26,435), Butler (22,508), Washington (18,281) and Fayette (10,782).

Cases

Allegheny and Westmoreland counties on Wednesday each saw declines in coronavirus cases from Tuesday, which had the highest numbers in nearly a month.

Allegheny added 209 additional covid cases, down from 348 a day earlier, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Westmoreland’s cases dropped to 66 after recording 100 on Tuesday.

Total cases in Allegheny County now sit at 78,914, while Westmoreland County’s case total is 27,369.

Pennsylvania added 2,594 additional cases, bringing its total to 955,730.

Philadelphia had the most new cases in the state with 259, followed by Allegheny (209), Erie (179), Montgomery (152) and Bucks (151). Here’s how the rest of the region fared, with the change from Tuesday:

• Armstrong: 4,958 (+8)
• Beaver: 12,561 (+27)
• Butler: 14,240 (+48)
• Fayette: 10,657 (+17)
• Indiana: 5,152 (+12)
• Somerset: 6,763 (+13)
• Washington: 14,047 (+44)

Deaths

Pennsylvania reported 43 additional deaths to bring the state’s total to 24,439. Of those deaths newly reported on Wednesday, 41 are from March and three are from February, with one removed from the November tally.

Allegheny County reported no deaths to leave its total at 1,703. The state’s department of health tallied two additional deaths for Allegheny County to raise its total to 1,762. The discrepancy between the two health departments has existed for months and has been attributed to different reporting methods.

Westmoreland County added two deaths, which raises its total to 686. In the region, Butler had two additional covid deaths while Beaver added one.

In Allegheny County’s 161 nursing and personal care homes, there have been 981 deaths, second-most in the state behind Montgomery (1,070), according to state data. Westmoreland is 16th with 279 throughout its 51 facilities. Butler (269) and Beaver (218) are the only other local counties above 200, followed by Washington (136), Fayette (102), Somerset (101), Indiana (62) and Armstrong (43).

Hospitalizations

Hospitalizations creeped up slightly in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, while declining overall in the state.

In Allegheny, hospitalizations rose by three to 167, with 18 covid-19 patients on ventilators and 52 in the ICU. In Westmoreland, there are 118 patients hospitalized for covid, an increase of four from Tuesday, with only two patients in the ICU.

Pennsylvania saw its hospitalizations drop by 17 to 1,513, with 174 covid patients on ventilators and 326 in an ICU.

For comparison, the state had 2,789 covid patients hospitalized a month ago, 5,201 on Jan. 10 and 5,877 on Dec. 10.