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BELLEFONTE -- In Centre County, the COVID-19 numbers are on the rise once again.
According to the Centers for Disease Control's latest weekly update -- which was released on Thursday night -- Centre County has returned to the high community level for COVID-19. For the previous 12 weeks, Centre County had been at the low level.
Since Centre County is now in the high level, the CDC recommends universal masking at indoor places open to the public.
Community levels measure new cases and new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 people over seven days, along with the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients. To be at the high level, the CDC requires 200 or more new cases per 100,000, with 10 or more COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 and/or a seven-day average of 10 percent of hospital beds occupied by COVID inpatients.
Centre County had a case rate of 248.79 and 13.7 new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 people over the last week, with 5.7 percent of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 inpatients.
Mount Nittany Medical Center had a total of 10 COVID-19 inpatients on Thursday, down from 11 each of the past four days. One is in intensive care and none are on ventilators. The patients range in age from 36 to 97. Seven are vaccinated and three are not, according to hospital's COVID inpatient dashboard.
Over the last seven days, Mount Nittany has had an average daily COVID inpatient census of 10.85.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health's weekly update on Wednesday, Centre County added 404 total new cases over the last week, a 30 percent increase over new cases from the previous seven days. The county's seven-day rolling average of 57 -- the highest it has been since Feb. 12 of this year.
Centre County has had a total of 36,730 COVID-19 cases (32,558 confirmed and 4,172 probable) since March 2020.
The DOH also recorded three new deaths attributed to the virus among Centre County residents. A total of 355 Centre County residents have died as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Statewide, 28 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties -- including Clinton County -- are at the high level. A total of 15 are at the low level and 24 are at the medium level.
Pennsylvania registered 29,664 new positives over the last week, a six percent increase from the prior week.
Throughout the Commonwealth, the statewide case total since the start of the pandemic is now 2,907,324.
As far as the positivity rate is concerned, Centre County's PCR testing positivity rate for the week of May 18 through May 24 was 18.9 percent, up from 14.2 percent from the previous seven days, according to the DOH early warning monitoring dashboard. The rate was the 20th highest among Pennsylvania's 67 counties, the DOH said.
The statewide positivity rate was 17.3 percent, up from 16.6 percent the previous seven days.
As far as vaccinations are concerned, according to data from the CDC, 95,945 people in Centre County are fully vaccinated.
That is an increase of 143 since May 18, and 14,298 are partially covered (up 22). First booster doses have been administered to 51,442 county residents (up 327) and 7,461 have received a second booster (up 859).
Throughout the county, a total of 70.88 percent of residents have received at least one dose. A total of 60.2 percent are fully vaccinated and 52.5 percent are fully vaccinated with a booster, according to the CDC. Among adult residents, 76.2 percent have received at least one dose, 64.4 percent are fully vaccinated and 55 percent have received a booster.
Statewide, 78.5 percent of adults and 69 percent of the total population are fully vaccinated.
For Centre County residents looking for vaccination appointments, they are available through Mount Nittany Health, Centre Volunteers in Medicine, other pharmacies and providers listed at vaccines.gov.
All individuals age 12 and older are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot. All individuals 50 and older and certain immunocompromised individuals are now eligible for a second booster shot.
For more information about COVID-19, visit www.cdc.gov. For information in Pennsylvania, visit health.pa.gov.