Westmoreland County hits record hospitalizations for covid-19

Westmoreland County on Friday reported 184 residents hospitalized for covid-19, the most since the pandemic began. Of those, 19 are in intensive care units and 13 are on ventilators.

Officials with the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported the county added 346 new cases of coronavirus, with 146 of those confirmed from 427 new PCR tests and 200 listed as probable. The county’s seven-day average has risen to 271 cases, the highest in about two weeks.

The county total is now at 21,349 cases since March. Of those, 15,704 are confirmed and 5,645 are probable. There have been 75,342 residents who have tested negative.

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.

The county attributed seven new deaths to the coronavirus. The total now stands at 472 in the county since the pandemic began.