Whitemarsh man is latest victim

Montco cases top 300; 50 percent increase puts state total above 1,600

A 62-year-old Whitemarsh Township man was the third person in Montgomery County to die of the coronavirus disease COVID-19, county officials reported Thursday.

Montgomery County Commissioners Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh said the patient had been hospitalized. The county’s first death, an Abington man, was reported last Sunday. A second death of an Abington man was reported earlier this week.

Arkoosh said Thursday that there were 94 new cases reported, bringing the county total to 313.

Statewide, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 50% to more than 1,600 cases, while record numbers of state residents filed for unemployment compensation, Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration said Thursday.

The state Department of Health said five more people died over the past 24 hours, bringing the state’s grim death toll to 16.

Pennsylvanians have filed about 650,000 unemployment compensation claims over the past 11 days as the coronavirus has spread and thousands of businesses closed or laid off employees. In coronavirus-related developments in Pennsylvania:

Cases

The Health Department said there were 560 new cases, and the 1,680 total cases are in 48 of the state’s 67 counties.

Health Secretary Rachel Levine has said she expects a surge of patients in the coming weeks, with cases doubling every two to three days. The Wolf administration is putting a strong emphasis on buying time to help get the state’s health care system ready for that growing flood of patients, Levine said.

Jobless claims

The single highest day for unemployment compensation claims, going back to March 15, was Friday, when more than 90,000 people filed claims.

That was the day after Wolf

unveiled an order for “nonlife-sustaining” businesses to shut down in an effort to help stop the spread of the virus.

Even before that order, unemployment compensation filings in Pennsylvania and many other states had skyrocketed, underscoring how many businesses had already closed or shed workers.

In the seven days through Saturday, Pennsylvanians filed about 379,000 claims, smashing the record for an entire week in the state.

In the four days since then, Pennsylvanians have filed an additional 271,000, putting the state on course to break last week’s record.

A review of weekly data going back to 1987 shows a high of 61,000 in early 2010, when the effects of the Great Recession were taking hold.

In February, when Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was 4.7%, a household

survey estimated that nearly 6.25 million people were working or looking for work, while 309,000 were unemployed.

In perhaps the biggest single layoff, the Greater Philadelphia YMCA told the state it was letting go of 3,400 employees effective last Friday. In an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, president and CEO Shaun Elliot said he fully intends to reopen the nonprofit’s branches once it is allowed by the state.

Elliott said the organization’s revenue had dropped “precipitously” when gyms and daycare centers were required to close to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Employees will be paid through April 5 and will be compensated for accrued and unused vacation days, he said.

Easter candy

Just Born, the Bethlehem-based confections company most famous for making marshmallow Peeps, has shut down its Bethlehem and Philadelphia production facilities

through April 7 in light of coronavirus concerns.

The company issued a statement saying that it had produced and shipped the Easter supply of Peeps to outlets before the shutdown that took effect Wednesday.

The company also makes a number of other candies including Mike and Ikes and Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews. Just Born said inventories of those candies had been shipped prior to the production stoppage.

Remote education

Pennsylvania schools that have been closed for nearly two weeks face a new challenge — legislation requiring them to “make a good faith effort” to continue to educate children.

Schools have to submit their plans to the state Education Department, and it’s already causing some to consider creative approaches, according to Mark DiRocco, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators.

Among ideas being floated, he said, are to have

school bus drivers deliver instructional materials along their normal routes, or to fire up Wi-Fi at school buildings so families without internet connections can download material from the parking lot.

The law, which passed both legislative chambers late Wednesday, will be signed by Wolf in the coming days, his spokeswoman said.

It directs the Education Department to provide guidance to all school entities, and the department has previously said there are options. Schools can go forward with “planned instruction,” teaching new material much as they were before COVID-19 shutdown.

They may also do “enrichment and review,” consisting of more informal instructions that “reinforce or extend” what they were previously taught.

Either way, the agency has said, schools have to address all students’ needs, including those with disabilities and children whose first language is not English.