Levine: Don’t rely on ‘herd immunity’
As case count grows, Pa. Secretary of Health says concept ‘not good public health policy’
Pennsylvania’s health secretary on Monday pushed back against the idea of using “herd immunity” as a strategy to combat the surging coronavirus, as the state sawits two-daytotal of additional COVID-19 cases swell to 3,073.
During an online news briefing, Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said consistent, proper mask use, hand hygiene and social distancing are still the best tools to stop the spread of the virus.
What’ s not a good tool— counting on herd immunity, or the idea that enough people will eventually develop immunity to the disease, stopping its spread, she said. While herd immunity is not an official White House strategy on COVID-19, President Donald Trump has pushed the idea as a way to protect against the virus.
“We cannot rely on herd immunity,” Levine said. “That is not a goodpublic health strategy.”
AnthonyFauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, also has called backing herd immunity as a strategy for combating the virus “total nonsense.”
Levine said controlling COVID-19 is a responsibility shared by all Pennsylvanians.
In an interview on CNN Sunday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told anchor Jake Tapper “we cannot control the pandemic.”
“We can control COVID-19,” said Levine, emphasizing “can.”
For now, Pennsylvania’s daily increases are comparable with what the state saw in April 2020, the Health Departmentsaid. The seven-day moving average of newly reported cases was 1,769 onMonday, upsignificantly from 1,430 a week ago.
But there is a difference between now and the spring, Levine said.
“The important point is that our medical care is much better now because we’ve learned so much about the virus,” Levine said.
Pennsylvania now has reported a total of 195,695 positive cases, with 2.2 million people testing negative. The state’s test positivity rate is now 5%, up from from 4.2% last week, Levine said. Thirty counties have surpassed the 5% positivity rate.
The state also identified 15 counties as having “substantial community transmission,” including Berks and Schuylkill counties. Lehigh andNorthampton fall into the “moderate” cate
gory.
There were19deaths reported over two days in the state — 12 on Sunday and 7 on Monday — with the total now8,673. Nonew deaths were reported Sunday or Monday in the Lehigh Valley.
The Lehigh Valley saw a total of 192 new cases over the two-day period: 120 total in Lehigh County, 72 in Northampton County. That brings the total number of Lehigh Valley cases to 11,800.
The number of hospitalizations on Monday was 1,138, up from 1,104 on Sunday. Of those, 108 were on ventilators Monday, down from 115 on Sunday. Levine said Pennsylvania would continue to see hospitalizations go up.