Covid cases in Pennsylvania surge with 9,643 newly reported, the most in 3 weeks

Pennsylvania on Friday reported 9,643 additional cases of coronavirus, the most in nearly three weeks.

Many of the newly reported cases were attributed to Berks, Lancaster and Montgomery counties, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The state notes that today’s cases include backlogged antigen testing data from urgent care centers and 4,052 of the newly identified cases had their specimens collected over a week ago. The Department of Health will continue to report on backlogged data from urgent care centers over the next couple days.

Of the new cases, 3,984 are confirmed and 5,659 were recorded as probable.

The state has reported a total of 834,048 cases since the pandemic began in March. Of the total cases, 726,031 are confirmed and 108,017 are recorded as probable.

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 state added 159 additional deaths for a seven-day total of 1,141. This continues a downward trend in the seven-day total from a high of 1,563 deaths two weeks ago. Of the deaths newly reported Friday, 146 are from January and 13 are from December. The state has seen total of 21,462 covid-related deaths.

The are currently 3,586 patients hospitalized for covid-19 across the state, with 699 in intensive care units and 425 using ventilators, according to the Department of Health. Hospitalizations have been declining steadily for a week.

Of the 6,102 ventilators in the state, 1,698 are in use for all patients.