Harrisburg, PA - Today, the Pennsylvania Department of Health provided a weekly COVID-19 update as of Monday, Jan. 24.
“Although we are seeing a slight decrease in the seven-day moving average of COVID-19 cases, it is much too early to let down our guard,” Klinepeter added. “What we have seen during previous surges is that hospitalizations remain high for a couple of weeks after case counts start to decline. That means that our frontline healthcare workers need our continued support and a commitment to get vaccinated, get boosted, wear masks in public indoor spaces regardless of vaccination status and get tested when appropriate.”
The Wolf Administration this week unveiled the first component of its multi-layered initiative to support Pennsylvania’s healthcare staffing shortage amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The first state-directed healthcare strike team is now deployed and more are on the way.
“Despite the slight decrease in cases, staffing resources are in high-demand from Pennsylvania hospitals and health systems, whose frontline healthcare workers are exhausted and in need of support while they continue to see record numbers,” she said.
Meanwhile the Administration is encouraging residents to avoid seeking COVID-19 tests at hospitals by taking an active role in increasing testing capacity throughout the commonwealth
Weekly Update
Pennsylvania continues to make critical strides in getting eligible residents vaccinated by working closely with vaccine providers, grassroots organizations, and relevant stakeholders to ensure all Pennsylvanians have access to the COVID-19 vaccine. According to the CDC, as of Monday, Jan. 24, 75.3% of Pennsylvanians age 18 and older are fully vaccinated. This percentage reflects all 67 counties in Pennsylvania.
If you or your loved ones are not yet vaccinated, now is the time to get fully vaccinated, get boosted, and get children ages 5–18 vaccinated. Visit vaccines.gov to find a vaccine provider near you to schedule your vaccine appointment.
This week, the Department of Health analyzed the following vaccine data within its 66-county vaccine jurisdiction; Philadelphia is a separate vaccine jurisdiction:
- 382,064 vaccine doses were administered in the past week, including:
- 272,327 booster doses administered in the past week.
- 22,076 pediatric doses administered in the past week.
- 38.5% increase in vaccines administered from previous week.
Here is a statewide summary of COVID-19 trends over the past 7 days Monday, Jan. 17 –Sunday, Jan. 23:
- The daily average number of cases was 15,294.
- The number of people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 on Monday, Jan. 24 was 12.8 percent lower than on Jan. 17. The percent of available adult and pediatric ICU beds in the state rose to 16.1% and 14.2%, respectively.
- Approximately 27.8% of all staffed adult ICU beds are COVID-19 patients.
- 31.3% of all ventilators statewide are in use.
The Department of Health continues to provide the public with extensive and frequently updated data on both the COVID-19 dashboard and the vaccine dashboard. Both dashboards provide an interactive experience for the user to review statewide and local-level data updated daily.
The department also provides a dashboard showing COVID-19 data for skilled nursing homes including case counts, deaths and vaccination status for residents and staff.
For more information on the Department of Health’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, visit here.
To stay informed about the Wolf Administration’s vaccination efforts, the latest federal vaccine news, and answers to pressing vaccine questions, visit the Unite Against COVID Weekly Update.
MEDIA CONTACT: Mark O'Neill - RA-DHpressoffice@pa.gov
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