No New Coronavirus Restrictions In Delaware County For Now
DELAWARE COUNTY, PA —As state health secretary Dr. Rachel Levine prepares an afternoon announcement of "targeted efforts to control the spread of coronavirus in Pennsylvania," Delaware County will see any new restrictions at this time.
In response to news that at 1 p.m. Tuesday the state department of health will announce its targeted efforts to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, the Chester County Health Department, which is serving Delaware County's public health needs, said it will continue to watch data closely regarding coronavirus and will "consider additional mitigation measures that may be needed." County health officials are not announcing any new restrictions at the moment, officials said Tuesday morning.
For now, officials are "asking residents — individually and collectively — to please adhere to wearing masks, social distancing and washing hands."
Officials said these measures are paramount, especially in the run up to the holiday season.
The state's announcement comes in response to coronavirus case counts that across Pennsylvania have skyrocketed in the last two weeks.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health today confirmed as of noon Monday that there were 4,476 new cases reported yesterday, in addition to 5,199 new cases reported Sunday; a total of 9,675 additional positive cases of coronavirus in two days. The statewide total positive case count is 269,613.
There are 2,440 people hospitalized with coronavirus right now, the state health department reports. Of that number, 531 patients are in an intensive care unit with coronavirus. Most of the patients hospitalized are ages 65 or older, and most of the state's coronavirus deaths have been patients 65 or older.
Statewide, the positivity rate for the week of Nov. 6 to Nov. 12 was 9.6 percent.
Delaware County's positivity rate for the same period was 9.9 percent, up from 7.5 percent in the previous week. The county's incidence rate — a measure of cases per 100,000 in the population — jumped from 150.2 to 233.7 from Nov. 6 to Nov. 13, according to the Pennsylvania State Department of Health.
The state health department last updated its coronavirus dashboard Friday, at that time reporting 1,320 new confirmed coronavirus cases between Nov. 6 and Nov. 13 in Delaware County.
Thirty-seven people have died from the coronavirus in the last month in Delaware County, according to the Chester County Health Department's reports, and in all 831 have died in the county of coronavirus. The recovery rate here is 71.93 percent.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Levine have consistently said they have no intention of implementing another shutdown, as happened in spring.
Story by Marlene Lang
This article originally appeared on the Marple Newtown Patch
