Wolf administration officials announced progress in expanded testing and tracing efforts Dec. 22. As of that day, 7.4 million test results had been received, out of 12.8 million Pennsylvanians.

“Testing capacity for COVID-19 in Pennsylvania continues to expand,” said Director of Testing and Contact Tracing Michael Huff.

“The county and municipal health departments, Federally Qualified Health Centers, faith-based organizations, the Department of Health contract with AMI, and most recently, 19 additional Rite Aid locations, all are providing testing across Pennsylvania to help contain the spread of COVID-19.”

Additionally, residents in communities without a local health department are now asked to provide an email address to help contact tracers to more quickly collate responses and data.

However, signs continue to point toward rough months ahead. The week of Dec. 11-17 indicated hospitalizations are twice that seen in the spring, and positive results are at nearly 16 percent of test subjects.

Pennsylvania hospitals began receiving shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine the week of Dec. 14 and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine the week of Dec. 21. Through Dec. 26, 66,350 doses of the vaccine have been administered.

As of Monday, the state has 551,712 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 15,010 deaths. Lehigh County has 19,280 confirmed and 479 deaths; Northampton County has 15,779 confirmed and 410 deaths; the city of Bethlehem has 3,915 confirmed and 89 deaths.