First 2 cases confirmed in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG » Pennsylvania has confirmed its first two cases of the new coronavirus, one in Delaware County and one in Wayne County, and health officials hoped to track down people who had contact with them, Gov. Tom Wolf and state officials said Friday morning.
More positive tests for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, are expected in the coming days and weeks, state officials said.
The first two positive tests came back early Friday, and the two people are isolated in their homes, Wolf told a news conference at Pennsylvania Emergency Management Headquarters in Harrisburg. Afterward, Wolf signed an emergency disaster declaration to grant state agencies more freedom to use resources to respond to the virus, the administration said.
Details that would reveal the identities of the infected people are not being released, officials said, and they are not disclosing how many tests for COVID-19 have been run at a state lab.
One of the confirmed cases is an adult who recently had exposure to an infected person in another state, and Pennsylvania health officials became aware of it right away, according to Dr. Sharon Watkins, the director for the state’s Bureau of Epidemiology.
The other confirmed case is an adult who recently traveled extensively in Europe, including to countries where the new virus is widespread, Watkins said.
Their exposure to others in Pennsylvania is being investigated, but health officials believe, for now, that it is relatively limited, Watkins said.
Officials worked Friday
The first two positive tests came back early Friday, and the two people are isolated in their homes, Wolf told a news conference at Pennsylvania Emergency Management Headquarters in Harrisburg.
to locate people who had close contact with the two infected people and will ask them to quarantine themselves for 14 days, Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said,
Separately, classes were canceled Friday at five schools in a Bucks County school district because some members of its community were exposed to a confirmed case of the virus, district officials said.
The school district’s action is unrelated to the two cases confirmed in Pennsylvania, health officials said.
The decision to close the schools was made “out of an abundance of caution” after consultations with state and local health officials, Central Bucks Superintendent John Kopicki said.