The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Pennsylvania officials eye areas where COVID-19 cases rising
HARRISBURG» Pennsylvania health officials are looking closely at areas where COVID-19 infection rates and deaths are ticking back up, threatening to turn back progress against the pandemic, the state’s health secretary said Friday.
The rise may be attributable to the gradual reopening that has been taking place in Pennsylvania, as well as more extensive testing, Dr. Rachel Levine said.
“We are doing quote-unquote a deep dive into all of the counties that have had increases,” Levine said, warning that “community spread” is occurring in some parts of Pennsylvania.
Statewide, new case counts grew by 30% and the percentage of positive tests also ticked up in the last seven days, compared with the previous sevenday period, according to state data.
The Health Department announced 600 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania, the state’s highest one-day total reported since June 13. That brings Pennsylvania’s total to more than 84,000 confirmed cases — eighthhighest among states, according to federal data — and, including 22 additional deaths reported
Friday, 6,579 deaths since March.
Also Friday, 11 counties moved to the green phase, the least-restrictive phase of Gov. Tom Wolf’s threestep stoplight-colored pandemic reopening plan. The changes encompass millions of people in the cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, Erie, Scranton, Lancaster and Reading, as well as Philadelphia’s heavily populated suburbs.
In the meantime, Wolf has tried to stress in recent days that he has ordered all businesses to require employees and customers to wear masks
Cases are on the rise in
Allegheny County, which reported 61 new confirmed infections Friday, its second-highest reported daily total of new cases. The county’s case counts and percentage of positive tests both more than tripled in the last seven days, compared with the previous seven-day period, according to state data reported Friday.
In Philadelphia, health officials said Friday they are not meeting the target reductions in new infections to move next week as planned to the green phase.
As a result, they warned that they may have to postpone that step, thus keeping more restrictions in place on businesses that can open, as well as capacity and the size of public gatherings.
The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley, said Philadelphia is seeing a slow increase in cases in the city, with a specific spike in people ages 16 to 19, likely because of social gatherings.
The city announced a mandatory mask order for both indoor and outdoor spaces for those in contact with someone they don’t live with, and Farley urged people to quarantine themselves if they come to the city from other states or counties where case counts are rising.