Westmoreland County added 228 new covid-19 cases and eight new deaths, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported on Tuesday.
After topping the 20,000 mark on Monday, the total number of cases in the county now stands at 20,393 with 15,247 confirmed and 5,146 probable since the first cases were reported in March. The county’s seven-day average is 220 cases and the county’s seven-day total cases is 1,538.
The state Department of Health defines a probable case as one in which a patient has “a positive serology (antibody) test and either covid-19 symptoms or a high-risk exposure” to someone who has been confirmed to have coronavirus.
The additional deaths bring the county’s death toll to 443. There have been 20 deaths in the county attributed to the disease this month. The county ranks as the 13th highest death toll in the state.
According to the state’s covid-19 dashboard, 178 Westmoreland County residents are hospitalized for covid, 18 of them are in intensive care units and 12 are on ventilators.
As of Jan. 4, the state vaccine dashboard shows that 4,071 doses of covid vaccines have been administered to county residents.
