Coronavirus cases spiking in Chesco
WEST CHESTER » The number of coronavirus cases in Chester County have spiked nearly 65 percent in the past week, Chester County Health Department officials are reporting.
There have been 300 new cases reported in the past seven days. For comparison, there were 182 confirmed cases in the seven days previous. Since Friday, there have been an average of 43 new daily COVID-19 cases.
“We lost a 19-year-old this week due to COVID,” Chester County Commissioner Josh Maxwell said. “I’m disappointed in people who continue to not wear masks.”
Officials are noticing an alarming trend that coronavirus is taking more of a toll on younger people in Chester County. Fifty percent of cases are from people under the age of 30. Overall, positivity rate has climbed to nearly 6 percent of cases, or 336 people in the past seven days.
Maxwell said he believes some of the new cases are related to the July 4 holiday when residents took trips to the shore and did not wear masks or social distance.
The rates are up in neighboring Delaware County as well, but not as bad as in
Chester County. Delaware County officials are reporting new cases have increased 48.9 percent in the past seven days, with the positivity rate at 57.7 percent of all cases.
As of Tuesday, 341 people have died in Chester County from coronavirus. Recovery rate is nearly 75 percent. The majority of new cases are coming from the age 20 to 59 age bracket.
Willistown Township leads the county with 49 deaths, followed by East Vincent with 40, East Goshen with 36, East Bradford with 27, Phoenixville with 22, West Chester with 19 and Caln Township with 16.
Municipalities faring the best are Newlin Township and Warwick Township, with a combined three cases and no deaths.
Late last week, Gov.
As of Tuesday, 341 people have died in Chester County from coronavirus. Recovery rate is nearly 75 percent. The majority of new cases are coming from the age 20 to 59 age bracket.
Tom Wolf signed new orders for targeted mitigation efforts in the response to the rise in COVID cases. The new orders include reducing restaurants’ indoor dining capacity to 25 percent, limiting on-premises alcohol consumption to meals only, limiting indoor gatherings to 25 people and implementing telework whenever possible.
“During the past week, we have seen an unsettling climb in new COVID-19
cases,” Wolf said in a release. “When we hit our peak on April 9, we had nearly two thousand new cases that day with other days’ cases hovering around 1,000. Medical experts looking at the trajectory we are on now are projecting that this new surge could soon eclipse the April peak. With our rapid case increases we need to act again now.”
David Rubin, director of PolicyLab and director of Population Health Innovation at Children’s Hospital
of Philadelphia, said the increase in cases in Northeast Philadelphia is alarming.
“Philadelphia and its collar counties, both in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, have increasing risk for resurgence, and for a second week in a row, the forecasts around New York City have worsened,” he said. The time to act preventatively for the Northeast is slipping away; if they are to salvage their school reopenings, the moment for action is now.”