York County adds three new COVID-19 deaths Thursday

COVID-19 transmission continues to drop across York County, coming off the January spike of infections driven by the omicron variant.

Since the start of the pandemic, York County has recorded 116,911 cases and 1,423 deaths, according to the state Department of Health. That includes 138 new cases and three new deaths recorded since Wednesday.

As with cases, hospitalizations have been steadily declining across York County. According to state data, county hospitals had 74 COVID-19 patients as of Thursday, down nine from Wednesday. Of those, 16 adults were in the ICU, and 13 were on ventilators.

The wave of omicron cases across the U.S. seems to have increased immunity levels as a result. Millions of individual Americans’ immune systems now recognize the virus and are primed to fight it off if they encounter omicron, or even another variant, according to an Associated Press report.

About half of eligible Americans have received booster shots, AP reported. There have been nearly 80 million confirmed infections overall; many more infections have never been reported. One influential model uses those factors and others to estimate that 73% of Americans are, for now, immune to omicron, the dominant variant, and that could rise to 80% by mid-March.

“I am optimistic even if we have a surge in summer, cases will go up, but hospitalizations and deaths will not,” Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, told the AP.

About 54% of York County residents are fully vaccinated, according to the state. That figure is 75% statewide. Twenty-five percent of York County residents have received a booster shot.

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York County has the second-highest daily cases per capita among its neighboring counties, with 27 daily cases per 100,000 people, according to The New York Times. Cumberland County is slightly higher with 31 daily cases per capita. 

However, York County is also seeing a decreasing rate of new cases, at a level on par with its immediate neighbors.

• York County: 72% decrease in cases over the last 14 days
• Lancaster County: 68% decrease in cases over the last 14 days
• Adams County: 74% decrease in cases over the last 14 days
• Cumberland County: 66% decrease in cases over the last 14 days
• Dauphin County: 64% decrease in cases over the last 14 days
• Philadelphia: 55% decrease in cases over the last 14 days
• New York City: 61% decrease in cases over the last 14 days

Pennsylvania has recorded 2,735,573 COVID-19 cases and 42,617 deaths so far over the course of the pandemic, according to the state Department of Health.