Submitted Image The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced 57 new cases in Warren County on Friday and a record 95 on Thursday.

There have been over 150 new cases of COVID-19 in Warren County announced in the last two days.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced 57 new cases on Friday and a record 95 on Thursday. The previous high for single-day new cases was 82 on Jan. 4, according to DOH records.

So far in January, there have been almost 900 new cases. At the end of the year, there had been 5,612 in the county. As of Friday, there had been 6,500.

The month with the most total cases so far was December 2020, with 1,171 new cases.

At more than 40 cases per day so far, January is on pace to be the month with the most new cases.

There are more positive cases than ever before among school-aged children, according to the department.

For the week of Jan. 12 through Jan. 18, there were 74 cases among school-age children and six among children under 5.

The omicron variant, the dominant one in the world today, is considered more communicable, but associated with lesser severity than the delta variant common last year.

At Thursday’s meeting of the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), Bethany Anderson of Warren General Hospital said the hospital is seeing about 10 to 12 COVID-positive inpatients per day. “They are not quite as sick” on average, but “some are very ill,” Anderson said.

Officials continue to link vaccination status inversely to likelihood of hospitalization with COVID. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate of COVID hospitalization in December was 16 times higher among people ages 18 and up who are unvaccinated than among those who are vaccinated.

Additional shots, including boosters, make that number rise dramatically. According to CDC, the rate of COVID-19 hospitalization among people age 65 and up who were unvaccinated was 49 times higher in December than the rate for vaccinated and boosted people in the same group. Among those ages 50 to 64, the rate was 44 times higher for those who were unvaccinated compared to those who were vaccinated and had received an additional dose.

The number of cases is contributing to crowding of hospitals and delays in transfers, Anderson said. “We are experiencing significant delays in transfers to our flagship hospitals.”

Although the omicron variant is associated with less severity, county residents continue to die from COVID.

The COVID-related death toll in the county is 191, with 11 of those announced this month.

There are still tests and vaccines available locally. Free, at-home COVID tests are available through covidtests.gov. Households are eligible for up to four tests.

LEPC members suggested that residents not wait until they want to take the test to apply for them. According to the website, orders typically ship in seven to 12 days.