The COVID-19 status of the six local counties continues to improve, according to Friday’s update of the state Department of Health’s early warning dashboard.

The improvements are especially definitive for new case numbers and incidence rates — the number of new cases per 100,000 residents — as those metrics improved for all the local counties.

Blair’s new case numbers dropped the most this week — by 45 to 77 — although that 77 still leaves Blair as the local county with the highest new case number. Huntingdon has the fewest new cases this week, with 18.

Blair’s incidence rate also dropped the most — by 37 to 63 cases per 100,000 residents — although that 63 leaves Blair again as the local county with the highest incidence rate. The lowest incidence rate is in Centre County, with 24 new cases per 100,000 residents. The smallest incidence rate drop was in Clearfield County, down by four to 60 cases per 100,000 residents.

The results for test positivity rates were mixed, dropping in three counties and rising in the others. None of the changes were extreme.

The rate dropped in Blair, Huntingdon and Cambria counties.

The positivity rate rose 0.2 points in Bedford, Centre and Clearfield counties. Bedford now has the highest local positivity rate at 8.3 percent.

The biggest change in the average daily number of hospital patients for this week was in Clearfield County, where the number declined by 4.9 per day to 5. The highest daily average is in Cambria, at 24 patients per day. The average number of patients per day in Blair is 20.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.