Throughout the month of April, new COVID-19 cases surge once again across Pennsylvania and in Montgomery County, reports Keith Mayer for The Reading Eagle.

The  U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the new variant of Omicron, known as BA.2, has become the new dominant strain of COVID-19 across the United States.

The latest weekly Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, with the week ending on April 7, shows Pennsylvania has a 5.8% positivity rate.

No 3 in Pennsylvania is Montgomery County with plus 128 cases, 61.5 per 100,000 people and 6.7% positivity rate, with Delco and Chester Counties right behind:

• No. 5 Delaware: plus 113, 56.1 and 5.7%
• No. 7 Chester: plus 97, 64.0 and 7.2%.

Cases began rising at the end of March after two months of a decline, however this data shows a new rise in April.

Overall, in Pennsylvania, the new cases have crossed the 7-day 1,000-per-day average for the first time in about six weeks.

According to the CDC COVID-19 tracker, there are new 813 cases in the last seven days in Montgomery County (April 10 to April 17), which is a 38.97% change. Deaths appear to have declined.

Read more about the latest COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania and across the counties at The Reading Eagle.