Pennsylvania reported a record daily number of COVID-19 deaths Wednesday with 194 ? a grim milestone that came as testing “strike teams” began operating in four counties, including Northampton, in a bid to control a surge that threatens to swamp the state’s hospitals.
The Health Department reported 8,291 additional cases, bringing the total since March to 375,431. That includes 289 cases in Lehigh County, which had two deaths, and a one-day record 245 in Northampton, which had one death.
Since the first case was reported 270 days ago, 10,757 people in Pennsylvania have died of the coronavirus, including 724 in the Lehigh Valley. The state’s first coronavirus death, on March 18, happened in Northampton County.
Statewide, hospitalizations reached 4,982, an increase of 238 over Tuesday, with 1,048 patients in intensive care and 565 on ventilators.
The trend in the 14-day moving average of number of hospitalized patients per day has increased by nearly 3,300 since the end of September. The seven-day moving average of newly reported cases was 6,800 on Wednesday, up 4% from 6,568 a week ago.
Gov. Tom Wolf and other officials have said the state could run out of hospital beds in a month if the surge isn’t controlled. And the White House coronavirus task force said an expected spike in cases tied to Thanksgiving “will compromise COVID patient care, as well as medical care overall.”
Those warnings loomed large Wednesday morning at the William Penn Highway Park & Ride on Emrick Boulevard, just off Route 33 in Bethlehem Township, where a team of health care workers launched a five-day drive-thru and walk-up testing clinic. Hundreds of people showed up to submit to nasal swabs, the results of which will be available in two to seven days.
The wait for drive-ins was about 90 minutes to two hours, said Todd Weaver, director of Northampton County Emergency Management. Only a handful of people braved the cold to walk up and wait outside the tent.
“This is part of a trial run for a vaccine, I would say,” Weaver said, bundled up outside his command truck. He foresees similar mass drive-thru clinics once vaccines become available.
AMI, the company providing the tests, will give 440 each day, team leader Craig Chance said, estimating around 12:30 p.m. that the cars currently waiting in the lot might bring them up to that cutoff.
The line of cars started to taper off by midday as testing proceeded and some people gave up and left, likely to try another day.
Wolf announced the deployment of the testing teams on Tuesday, saying Northampton and four other counties were chosen first because they have had recent, rapid increases in cases.
The teams will only be sent to counties that don’t have stand-alone health departments. They began operating in Northampton, Mifflin, Bedford and Tioga counties on Wednesday, and a fifth team is scheduled to begin testing in Butler County on Friday.
The state, he said, has vastly expanded its testing capacity and is now capable of doing 67,000 tests in a single day, equal to the total number given from March to May.
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Wolf said the latest data showed there was no question the state was in a “new, violent upsurge in cases, in deaths, in hospitalizations, things that really are a reason for alarm.”
Wolf said he had the authority to act in “top-down” fashion, but the basic solution was for all Pennsylvanians to wear masks, not go out if at all possible, telework when possible and follow other guidance and orders.
The clinic will operate from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Sunday, though it will close earlier if the cutoff is reached before 6 p.m. No appointment is necessary. Participants, who needn’t be symptomatic, are asked to bring a photo ID or insurance card for identification.
Morning Call Capitol correspondent Ford Turner contributed to this story.
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