Bucks Co. COVID Hospitalizations Hit Record Low
BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Bucks County hospitalizations for the coronavirus have hit their lowest level since the pandemic began, with just two people in critical condition with the virus on Thursday, officials said.
Dr. David Damsker, director of the Bucks County Department of Health, said that a dozen or fewer people in the county were hospitalized with the virus on Thursday. Just two of those were sick enough to be on ventilators, he said.
"I think everyone should be really happy about that," Damsker said during a virtual news conference. "We're hoping that soon, we're down into the single digits (of hospitalizations).
"Regardless of what you hear in other states and nationally, we are doing really well in Bucks County."
Those numbers come as areas in the U.S. that didn't adhere to strict protocols earlier in the pandemic are reporting some of their highest death and infection rates yet. Georgia this week has broken its single-day record for coronvirus deaths multiple times, while Florida set a similar record on Tuesday.
At the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak in Bucks County, in late April and May, it wasn't unusual for upward of 250 people to be hospitalized, with dozens in intensive care on any given day.
Those numbers, along with new infections, would ultimately drop dramatically as Bucks observed Pennsylvania's coronavirus quarantine. There was something of an upsurge when the county went to the state's least restrictive green phase of the plan and numbers jumped another time after the July 4 holiday.
But, since then, the county's number of new cases has reverted to its lowest level since the early pandemic, averaging in the low 20s every day.
"We don't know how far down they're going to go," Damsker said Thursday. "We will have a baseline number of cases. People are going to be out and about and there's going to be a certain amount of transmission in the community."
During the news conference, Bucks County officials also shared an update on plans to provide face shields for all county school children. Emergency management Director Scott Forster said the county has secured nearly 200,000 face shields in both adult and children's sizes.
He said they are arriving now and will be distributed to schools soon, starting with districts and campuses that plan to begin the 2020-21 school year with some or all students attending classes in person.
After that, Forster said, the shields will be delivered to school systems that plan to begin the year with remote-only instruction.
Damsker also addressed Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's recommendation that youth sports be postponed until 2021 due to the pandemic. Leagues that have resumed play in Bucks have done so carefully, Damsker said.
"There have been a couple of cases on these sports teams ... where someone was sick," Damsker said. "(But) we've seen very, very little spread on a team — maybe one case total. I want to give some credit to both the schools and the recreation leagues.
He noted that, after Wolf's initial statement, the governor has "come out since saying it's a recommendation, not a requirement. A lot of leagues have put a lot of effort into protocols to keep the kids safe."
This article originally appeared on the Warminster Patch
