Westmoreland County adds 16 covid deaths, 331 new cases

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Westmoreland County adds 16 covid deaths, 331 new cases

Mike Palm | Wednesday, January 6, 2021 12:20 p.m.

Shane Dunlap | Tribune-Review

An aerial view showing the Loyalhanna Creek snaking its way through downtown Latrobe photographed from a helicopter over Latrobe.

Westmoreland County saw its highest single-day coronavirus death report Wednesday, adding 16 to its total.

Those newly reported deaths bring the county’s total to 459, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Deaths have been climbing rapidly in the county after a slow climb to 100 at the end of October:

Oct. 30: 100 deaths

Dec. 1: 200 deaths

Dec. 15: 300 deaths

Dec. 30: 400 deaths

The previous high for reported deaths (15) was reached three times, on Dec. 2, 9 and 30.

The county also added 331 new cases, raising the county’s total to 20,724. Of those, 143 are confirmed and 188 are probable. Overall, the county has seen 15,390 confirmed cases and 5,334 probable cases from 90,207 total tests.

According to the state’s covid-19 dashboard, there are currently 179 coronavirus patients hospitalized in the county, up one from Tuesday’s 178. The county has 100 ventilators, with 23 in use, 11 by covid-19 patients. There are 16 coronavirus patients in Westmoreland County ICUs, with 24.4% of county ICU beds available.

The state vaccine dashboard shows that 4,914 doses of covid vaccines have been administered in the county.

Health officials define a probable case as one in which a patient has a positive viral antigen test or covid symptoms with a “high-risk exposure” to someone who has been confirmed to have coronavirus.

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