The Home Page Network

As we closed out the month of October, and ushered in November, COVID activity for our county continues to increase.

In the last 14 days Tioga County has seen 117 new cases of COVID-19, with 65 of those cases being reported in the last 7 days. This brings the total for the month of October total to 163 positive cases, which represents a higher monthly total than the previous 7 months combined.

PCR positivity has also increased again this week to 9.3 percent; a 30 percent increase from last week’s percentage. This consistent increase in PCR positivity throughout the month of October accounted for a 350 percent increase from September’s positivity rate. With a positivity rate of 9.3 percent, Tioga County now has 7th highest positivity rate of all 67 counties in Pennsylvania.

We have also seen a change this week in our Mode of Transmission with Tioga County now classified as Substantial Transmission based on the number of positive cases per 100,000 residents which is presently 127; this represents a 57% increase over last week’s cases. The threshold for Substantial Transmission is based on either a PCR positivity rate over 10 percent or greater than 100 cases per 100,000 residents in the previous 7 day period. Early projections have us remaining Substantial again next week.

For the 3rd week in a row, Bradford and Chemung are the 2 counties in our region with the highest increases in positive COVID cases. In the past 7 days Bradford has seen 272 additional positive cases and 1 addition deaths and Chemung has seen 456 additional positive cases and 6 additional deaths.

Level of Community Transmission for Bradford County remains Substantial as it has for the past 4 weeks and Bradford County is now the highest of all 67 counties for both cases per 100,000 residents and PCR positivity rate.

This week, Potter County increased from Low to Moderate transmission and Lycoming County remained Moderate transmission. Portions of Chemung County remain designated at as an Orange Zone again this week with continued restriction on local schools’ and businesses.

As I stated last week, the continued rise in positive cases in Bradford and Chemung counties represent a significant increase in COVID activity; AND again this week, the Task Force is recommending you limit your travel to these counties to what is absolutely necessary and if you need to travel to Bradford or Chemung counties, please exercise extreme caution.

Early numbers based on the first few days of the month have us on pace for a significant number of positive case in November and we are currently trending to have more positive cases in November than were recorded in October. With the PCR positivity percentage increasing significantly over the past month and our 7 day rolling average of new cases also increasing, fall is already proven to be very challenging in limiting the spread of COVID-19 in our county.

To reverse this trend, we are going to need an all hands on deck effort to control the spread in our community, so please do everything you can to protect yourselves, your family and our county.

Until next week, stay strong and stay safe.