As of Tuesday, McKean County had four positive cases of COVID-19, according to the state Department of Health.
Potter County also had four, while Elk County had two and Cameron County had one.
In her daily briefing, Dr. Rachel Levine, state health secretary, said there were 1,146 new cases in the state, making for a total of 25,345 who have tested positive. Of that, 1,250 were in health care workers, 1,869 are in 232 long-term care living facilities like nursing homes and personal care homes. As of Tuesday, the department reported a total of 584 deaths due to COVID-19, all of which were adults.
“There are 2,306 patients hospitalized” across the state, Levine said, “approximately ten percent of our total cases. That figure has remained consistent.”
Of the hospitalized patients, 666 required ventilators. “Across the commonwealth’s hospital system, 42 percent of hospital beds, 37 intensive care unit beds and nearly 70 percent of our ventilators are still available,” she confirmed.
The department does not release specific details about the people who have tested positive, listing only the county of residence.
In response to several questions about demographic data of those sick with the virus, Levine said, “The accuracy of information we collect is dependent on the information input into the system.”
The medical staff treating patients have been asked to input the specific demographic information into the state’s system, but Levine said that, understandably, they are very busy and may not fill out all the fields. She said the department has sent out a request to strengthen the reporting response.
When asked again about reopening some businesses in the state, or allowing some of the current “non-essential” businesses to reopen, Levine said again that it is too early.
“I think the prevention efforts the governor has put in place have been working,” she said. “We have been able to flatten the curve.”
With the modeling projections at the beginning of the outbreak, Pennsylvania would have had around 60,000 cases by now, Levine said. Instead, Gov. Tom Wolf instituted mitigation efforts and the current number is around 25,000.
“It is still too many cases, but the curve has been flattened,” she said. Regarding opening businesses, Levine said, “When the time is right the governor will make that decision.”
A shortage of reagents and chemicals for the testing kits is causing issues with availability of tests, she explained, keeping the state from doing “population based testing.” Instead the testing is focused on those who are showing symptoms, with priority given to health care workers and first responders.
Asked if there is a “hard and fast metric” to when the state might reopen, Levine said it will depend on the number of cases seen across the state. “I don’t think it will necessarily be two months,” she said. “We will have to take it day by day, week by week. It will not be one grand reopening of the state.”
And when things are reopened, it will be with caution. Levine said it will be a progressive approach, “watching for outbreaks all the time.”
While there have been many cases in the Philadelphia region and around the Poconos, Levine said she doesn’t believe that anywhere in the state has been overwhelmed.
“There are no hospitals that are overwhelmed,” she said. “We are watching utilization of ICU beds and ventilators. We’re watching that really carefully to make sure no hospital or health system becomes overwhelmed.”
