No New Pandemic Restrictions In Chester County For Now
CHESTER COUNTY, PA —As state health secretary Dr. Rachel Levine prepares an afternoon announcement of "targeted efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania," Chester County's health department said it will not call for 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 COVID-19, the Chester County Health Department said it will continue to watch data closely regarding COVID-19 and will "consider additional mitigation measures that may be needed." County health officials are not announcing any new restrictions at the moment, Chester County officials said Tuesday morning.
For now, Chester County officials are "asking residents — individually and collectively — to please adhere to wearing masks, social distancing and washing hands. This remains paramount in Chester County, especially in the run up to Thanksgiving and as we enter the full holiday season."
The state's announcement comes in response to COVID-19 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 COVID-19 in two days. The statewide total positive case count is 269,613.
There are 2,440 people hospitalized with COVID-19 right now, the state health department reports. Of that number, 531 patients are in an intensive care unit with COVID-19. Most of the patients hospitalized are ages 65 or older, and most of the state's COVID-19 deaths have been patients 65 or older.
Statewide, the positivity rate for the week of Nov. 6-12 was 9.6 percent.
Chester County's positivity rate for the same period was 7.1 percent, up from 5.1 percent in the previous week. The county's incidence rate — a measure of cases per 100,000 in the population — jumped from 85.8 to 140.6 from Nov. 6 to Nov. 13, according to the Pennsylvania State Department of Health.
The state health department last updated its COVID-19 dashboard Friday, at that time reporting 286 new confirmed COVID-19 cases between Nov. 6 and Nov. 13 in Chester County.
In the last seven days Chester County's incidence rate went up from 85.8 to 140.6 per 100,000 residents.
Five people have died of COVID-19 in the last month in Chester County, according to the Chester County Health Department's reports, and in all 384 have died in the county of COVID-19. The recovery rate here is 76.84 percent.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Levine have consistently said they have no intention of implementing another shutdown, as happened in spring.
This article originally appeared on the West Chester Patch
