January 5, 2022 in Public Health
COVID Data Update for January 5
As of January 4, the number of new cases reported in the Philadelphia metro area have increased sharply since December 9. New case rate in all five SEPA counties is rated as “Extreme” (the most dire category) by COVIDActNow.org. Some good news: Over the same time period the percentage of ICU beds in use has been stable.
The infection rate (a measure of how many persons one sick individual infects, on average) has also grown substantially. The average infection rate across our five counties is now 1.38. This means that for each 100 infected persons, they are spreading the virus to 138 people, indicating substantial community transmission.
Positive test rates have also increased significantly to an average of 27.4% across the five counties, up from 8.32% on December 9.
| Infectious disease expert Dr. Tim Babinchak tells us that: “We should start to see the peak number of infections in the next two weeks. That will likely be followed by falling rates into February and March. We now have good evidence that while more contagious, Omicron does seem to be less severe in disease production. Boosters and continued adherence to the masking and distancing guidelines will help.”
We continue to recommend the in-person worship guidelines from Bishop Davenport. |
