Montco official: ‘The coronavirus is still in our midst’

Montgomery County officials reported 13 more deaths from the coronavirus on Thursday and released data that indicated people under 50 years of age appeared to get infected at a rate higher than the overall average rate of infection during a recent two-week period.

The 13 COVID-19 deaths included individuals who ranged in age from 69 to 100 and the deaths bring the county’s death toll to 675 since March 7, when the first two cases of the virus were identified in the county, Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh said Thursday during a daily news briefing to update the community about the pandemic.

To date, 365 females and 310 males have died from the virus in the county. Officials said the racial breakdown for those that have died included: 16 Asian; three Asian Indian; two Asian Korean; 83 African American; and 227 white. Information about the ethnicity of the remaining 344 individuals was unavailable.

Arkoosh said 566 of the total 675 COVID-19 deaths were county residents who lived in long-term care facilities, representing about 84-percent of the total deaths.

The 675 total deaths were “confirmed positive” COVID-19 cases through the use of lab tests.

Officials reported that as of Thursday 125 other deaths in the county have been listed as “probable” COVID-19 deaths. Those are deaths that list COVID-19 as a cause of death on a death certificate but in which there was no laboratory confirmation of the virus. Additionally, officials reported a total of 92 new positive cases of the virus on Thursday, bringing the county’s total number of cases to 6,779 since March 7. Twenty-three of the latest positive individuals were residents of long-term care facilities, nine were inmates at the county jail in Lower Providence and 60 were other members of the community.

The new positive individuals included 52 males and 40 females who ranged in age from 11 to 100 and were residents of 26 different municipalities. Six of the individuals are known to be hospitalized.

Referring to new data compiled by the county, officials determined that people under 50 years old are getting infected at a rate higher than the overall average rate of infection.

For the period May 13 to May 28, the overall percent increase in COVID-19 cases was 26 percent. But there was a 34.7 percent increase in positive cases among those ages 20 to 29 and only a 17.4 percent increase among those 70 to 79.

Also as of Thursday, 748 people ages 20 to 29 tested positive for COVID-19 and 932 people ages 30 to 39 tested positive since March 7. Comparatively, 720 people ages 70 to 79 had tested positive for the virus.

“Just trying to remind everyone that we are all at risk,” Arkoosh said. “As we move into the yellow phase, we have to keep in mind… that the coronavirus is still in our midst.”

Last Friday, Gov. Tom Wolf said the county can move from the “red phase” to the “yellow phase” of his color-coded reopening plan, a phase that will loosen some restrictions, including the stay-at-home order, on June 5.