Westmoreland County eclipses 200 total deaths attributed to covid-19

Westmoreland County on Tuesday surpassed 200 deaths attributed to the coronavirus — more than half of which were reported since Nov. 1.

The county reported five new deaths and 199 additional cases of covid-19, according to the state Health Department. Since Nov. 1, Westmoreland County has reported 101 covid-19 deaths, according to state records. There were only three days in November where the county didn’t post at least one death.

Among the new cases, 158 were confirmed through 413 new PCR tests. The daily PCR positive rate hit 38.26% on Tuesday, with the overall rate at 10.52%.

In all, cases in Westmoreland County are up 107% since the beginning of November.

There have been a total of 9,460 cases of covid-19 since the virus hit the region in March.

According to the state’s covid-19 tracking website, 107 Westmoreland County residents are in the hospital with the virus, 17 of them in the ICU and 12 of them on ventilators. State officials report there are 89 operational ventilators in the county, with 23 (25.8%) currently in use for all illnesses.