UPDATE: Lehigh Valley total COVID-19 cases climb past 8K as state adds 929 cases
Pennsylvania saw 1,053 new cases of COVID-19 over the last two days bringing the total statewide to 95,742.
The state saw 725 new cases on Sunday and 328 on Monday with 26% of the new cases in Allegheny County, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s daily update.
The greater Pittsburgh-area is contending with an outbreak that local health officials attribute to bars, indoor dining and large gatherings with alcohol. The region’s halted indoor dining and shut bars for two weeks to try to stem the jump in cases that began June 22.
But that’s not the only area of concern.
Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine says there been a 14.4% week-over-week increase of new cases statewide, with 43 counties seeing case counts rise.
The rate of positive tests coming back in 28 counties also jumped, but the state’s overall positivity rate is 4.4%, she said.
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The state health department only issued a partial COVID-19 data update late Sunday evening due to ongoing maintenance to the state’s dashboard. That’s why lehighvalleylive.com is combining Sunday and Monday’s daily reports, which were just released in full.
There were 14 new deaths reported, bringing the state’s total death toll to 6,911.
In her Monday news conference, Levine emphasized vigilance as cases skyrocket across the United States.
“As much as our efforts are about laws and mandates and requirements, they’re actually mostly about your choices,” Levine said. “In Pennsylvania, we’re all in the green phase. We’ve been able to return to work. But our actions as a community will continue to impact whether we can stay at work.”
Here are your coronavirus updates for Monday, July 13, 2020.
Pa. coronavirus outbreak
The rate of new COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania has been climbing since mid-June as the state’s economy reopened.
A month ago, the state’s seven-day average of new cases hovered at 482. Today, it stands at 777.
Nineteen to 49-year-olds now account for 45% of Pennsylvania’s cases, mirroring a trend seen at the start of the pandemic. Next the virus spread to seniors, ravaging the state’s nursing home residents, who today account for 68% of the state’s 6,911 total deaths, Levine said.
Pennsylvania is again seeing high numbers in the young, some of whom do get quite ill, she said.
“This pattern is now repeating,” she said.
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Still, patients 65 and older account for the majority of the state’s hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19. Nursing-home residents represent about 19% of statewide cases -- a figure that’s on the decline.
The state says 77% of infected Pennsylvanians to-date have recovered, as the majority of people with COVID-19 do.
Pennsylvania is concerned about the rapid increase in cases in places like Florida, Texas, California and Arizona. Travel can easily spread cases to other states, Levine said.
“There are things we can do right now to stop this cycle,” she said during the Monday news conference.
She emphasized the importance of social distancing, mask wearing and avoiding situations where you could be exposed to the virus. If the restaurant you planned to dine at is too crowded, leave and protect yourself, she urged.
Monday marks the first day of July that Allegheny County did not see more than 100 new cases with 71 reported.
But this reflects a reporting lag as the 7,042 tests performed in the last 24 hours is low compared to the recent daily average of 14,021 tests conducted.
This reflects both a typical delay in weekend results and the crushing backlog national testing companies are facing, according to Levine.
“We will expect a data dump at some point this week,” she said.
Here are counties with the largest increase in cases over the last 48 hours:
- Philadelphia:147
- Delaware: 56
- Montgomery: 48
- Bucks: 41
- Lancaster: 35
- Westmoreland: 35
- York: 28
- Lawrence: 26
- Chester: 24
- Washington: 24
- Beaver: 22
- Luzerne: 22
- Berks: 20
“We are very carefully monitoring data from across the state to ensure we stay on track,” Levine said.
Levine and Gov. Tom Wolf are not pushing for sweeping lockdown measures to control the spread of the virus. They support more targeted mitigation efforts as seen in Allegheny County.
The status of testing
Pennsylvania’s significantly ramped up its testing for the virus in recent weeks. The state’s averaged 15,881 daily tests over the last month, Levine said.
There were a total of 19,151 tests conducted on Sunday and Monday. A new high of 18,617 daily coronavirus tests was reported on Friday, according to state data.
About 9% of Pennsylvania’s population has been tested since March 3. To date, 835,732 tests have come back negative.
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State testing labs and most hospital labs are returning results in 24 to 48 hours, Levine said.
But the state’s testing ability is constrained by the deluge of tests coming into national testing companies, like Quest and LabCorp, from COVID-19 hotspot states.
“They are being inundated with samples,” Levine said, noting it is resulting in a seven to 10 day turnaround in some cases.
Health officials are closely monitoring the positive test rate -- that’s the number of daily tests that come back positive out of all tests conducted -- for spikes as cases rise statewide and long-term care facilities comply with a July 24 universal testing deadline.
“We are picking up asymptomatic individuals (in the community and long-term care facilities),” Levine said of the increased testing.
Officials want the positivity rate to stay below 5 % -- a guideline the World Health Organization sets for economic reopening -- as that’s an indicator testing is accurately capturing the spread of COVID-19 in a community.
The rate of positive tests should not automatically rise with increased testing, Levine emphasized. If the state is doing enough testing to catch people not displaying symptoms that rate should go down. It rises when the coronavirus is spreading in a community unchecked, she said.
Pennsylvania does not have the testing capacity to do widespread population testing. That requires a rapid test that can be administered quickly and easily with good sensitivity, Levine said.
“That test doesn’t exist yet,” she said.
Coronavirus in the Lehigh Valley
Case rates in Lehigh and Northampton counties have remained low over the last month, but the region is still approaching 8,000 cases and just surpassed 600 deaths – reminders that the coronavirus is still present.
As of Monday, according to state figures, the two-county Lehigh Valley region totaled 7,994 COVID-19 cases and 606 deaths, an increase of 24 cases and three deaths from Saturday. That breaks down to:
- 4,439 cases and 327 deaths in Lehigh County, with 15 new cases and three deaths in the last 48 hours.
- 3,555 cases and 279 deaths in Northampton County, with 9 new cases and no new deaths in the last 48 hours.
Northampton has averaged 11 new cases a day over the last seven days, while Lehigh stands at 17.
Should you self-quarantine?
Pennsylvania now suggests that residents who travel to 19 states should quarantine for 14 days upon returning home.
The states include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
Those states have extremely high infection rates, Levine said.
“That is one of the ways COVID-19 can increase in Pennsylvania if a lot of people have come from those hot zones, such as Florida,” Levine said. “If they are asymptomatic, for example, or pre-symptomatic and they bring it to Pennsylvania than that increases our numbers.”
She acknowledged the inherent difficulty in enforcing residents to quarantine saying there are no enforcement actions planned.
She did encourage employers to develop policies that allow employees to telework where feasible to adhere to the two-week quarantine. Some jobs cannot be done remotely and those employers should work on their leave policies, Levine said.
(Can’t see the table? Click here.)
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Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com.