Bucks County reported a 53 percent spike in new COVID-19 cases last week.
In a statement, the county health department said it learned of 244 new confirmed cases last week, a 53 percent spike over the previous week.
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Dr. David Damsker, the county health director, said many of the cases were due to college students getting sick and transmission through social gatherings.
“College students, their friends, and related family member cases have caused our numbers to go up somewhat over the past week or so. The infections weren’t from classroom exposures, but from the social gatherings on and off campus,” he said. “Friends and family members can and do have COVID, so take the additional precautions even with familiar people.”
Between Friday and Monday, the county learned of 132 new positive cases. Six were delayed reports that are no longer considered infectious.
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A total of 36 new cases were reported on Friday, 33 on Saturday, and a combined total of 63 between Sunday and Monday.
Looking at the 132 new cases over the past four days, 69 cases were the result of spread among people in the same household, 15 were due to community spread, 11 got sick through out-of-state travel, four were residents of long-term care facilities, three were health care workers, three were infected at other workplaces, and 27 were not able to immediately complete a contact tracing interview.
The county reported the deaths of a 65-year-old man, 81-year-old woman, and a 91-year-old female long-term care facility resident with underlying health conditions.
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There were three Bucks Countians in the hospital as of Monday evening and one in critical condition on a ventilator, the county said.
“The majority of our hospitals have no COVID patients, and almost all cases are very mild. That is by far the most important metric in Bucks right now, regardless of some who prefer to focus solely on case counts,” Damsker said.
The median age of Bucks Countians with COVID-19 continues to drop as there are more cases of younger people with the confirmed cases. In early July, the county reported the average age of those infected was 56. By Monday, that number had dropped to 53.
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Since the pandemic began, there have been 7,591 Bucks Countians with positive COVID-19 cases, 522 deaths, and 6,650 recoveries.
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