Posted on 07/17/2020 4:44:33 PM PDT by lightman
As coronavirus cases have been climbing in Pennsylvania, some counties are drawing attention from Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration.
The Wolf administration is monitoring counties that are seeing a higher percentage of positive cases over the past week. In a news release Friday, the administration focused on several counties where more than 5 percent of those being tested are positive, a benchmark that health professionals have cited as a sign of trouble.
Overall, the statewide positivity rate is 4.4 percent. But several counties have topped 5 percent, including some in central Pennsylvania. Southwestern Pennsylvania, which has seen an uptick of cases, has the highest positive rates.
The Wolf administration identified these counties as areas of concern because they are seeing over 5 percent of tests as positive: Beaver (8.2%), Allegheny (7.5%), Washington (6.2%), Indiana (6.1%), Lawrence (6.1%), York (6.1%), Lebanon (6.0%), Philadelphia (5.5%), Dauphin (5.1%) and Westmoreland (5.0%).
The administration’s news release attributed the rise in cases to “a lapse in following required mitigation efforts.” The governor’s office released a weekly update citing data from the state’s COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard.
“We continue to see cases rise and one thing we know for certain is that we must continue to wear masks and practice social distancing,” Wolf said in a statement.
“Risky behavior such as going out without a mask and congregating at a bar or in a crowded setting where social distancing isn’t being practiced continues to lead to spikes in cases,” Wolf said. “We need to recommit to these simple measures to stop the spread and go back to more freedoms.”
Citing the recent rise in COVID-19 cases, Wolf imposed new restrictions on bars and restaurants earlier this week; occupancy is limited to 25 percent and consumers must order food to buy alcoholic drinks. Wolf also ordered caps on gatherings: 25 people for indoor gatherings and 250 for outdoor events.
Earlier Friday, the state Department of Health reported 1,032 new cases as the state nears 100,000 cases. It’s the highest number of new cases in a single day since May 10. Since the first infection was reported March 6, 99,478 Pennsylvania residents have been infected.
Across Pennsylvania, 6,992 deaths have been tied to COVID-19, according to the health department.
Health department statistics show the statewide increase in coronavirus cases over the past four weeks.
June 20-26: 3,608 new cases, an average of 515 per day
June 27-July 3: 4,371 new cases, an average of 624 per day
July 4-10: 5,135 new cases, an average of 733 per day
July 11-17: 5,602 new cases, an average of 800 per day
The governor’s office and health department continue to stress wearing masks and practicing social distancing. Wolf also has said the new restrictions are designed to help ensure schools can open for in-person classes next month.
Republican lawmakers and business groups have criticized the governor’s new restrictions on restaurants and bars. They have said they want to protect the public but also worry some restaurants and bars won’t make it under the new restrictions.
Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate in June was 13 percent, the state Department of Labor and Industry said Friday. That actually represents a slight drop (0.4 percent) from May but is still far above normal. In June 2019, the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent.
The Wolf administration announced Friday it updated its travel recommendations and has removed Delaware from the list of states where travelers were asked to quarantine for 14 days upon returning to Pennsylvania.
Residents are asked to self-quarantine after visiting these states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
Residents of Beaver, Allegheny, Washington, Indiana, Lawrence, York, Lebanon, Philadelphia, Dauphin and Westmoreland counties better get your haircuts soon or it may be MUCH, MUCH later!
Call this a "blinking yellow"--full out "Yellow" may not be far behind.
Pennsylvania Ping!
Please ping me with articles of interest.
FReepmail me to be added to the list.
I think we’re yellowish-green. Or is it greenish-yellow? With a tinge of reddish-orange. Or something.
It's as confused as Dr. Levine's gender.
Not a return to freedom, but changing behavior for future Marxist tyrants. Kill every single last one of these dictators.
It amounts to about 10 additional new cases per day. I’ve run the numbers. Increased testing accounts for about 60% of the increase in new cases.
And then factor in the universal testing still underway at long term care facilities aka Nursing Homes aka petri dishes.
Exactly. Green is not a return to freedom. There IS no color that’s a return to freedom because the Democrats never intend to allow us to return to freedom.
I was surprised that even Rush was talking today about breaking the country up - because the only other option is Civil War. He has more courage than 100% of our elected officials (including President Trump) because they WILL not mention the obvious solution to all this.
How many decades until The Hunger Games become reality?
17 Jul: BBC: Hancock calls for urgent review into coronavirus death data in England
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has called for an urgent review into how coronavirus deaths have been recorded in England.
It follows confirmation from Public Health England that reported deaths may have included people who tested positive months before they died.
Other UK nations only include those who die within 28 days of a positive test.
Officials say the publication of daily death figures will be paused while the issue was “resolved”...
A note on the government’s website read: “Currently the daily deaths measure counts all people who have tested positive for coronavirus and since died, with no cut-off between time of testing and date of death...
Prof Carl Heneghan from University of Oxford, who spotted the issue with the data, told the BBC there was “huge variation” in the numbers of daily deaths reported in England by PHE.
While NHS England currently reports 30-35 deaths per day, Public Health England (PHE) data often shows double that or more, he said.
The reason is that anyone who has tested positive for coronavirus but then died at a later date of another cause would still be included in PHE’s Covid-19 death figures.
“By this PHE definition, no one with Covid in England is allowed to ever recover from their illness,” Prof Heneghan says.
“We need correct and accurate statistics so we can really understand the trend - otherwise it’s very difficult to know what’s going on,” he added.
Figures release from PHE today show that just under 10% of coronavirus deaths in England happened more than 28 days after a positive test.
In almost half of those cases, Covid-19 was recorded as the main cause of death...
Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales only include deaths in their daily count if someone died within 28 days of a positive test...
Dr Susan Hopkins, from Public Health England, said there was no agreed method of counting deaths from Covid-19.
“In England, we count all those that have died who had a positive Covid-19 test at any point, to ensure our data is as complete as possible...
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53443724
behind paywall:
17 Jul: UK Telegraph: Matt Hancock launches inquiry into true PHE coronavirus death figures
Government source says car accident fatality could have been counted, raising concerns true toll of virus has been inflated
By Henry Bodkin
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/17/matt-hancock-launches-inquiry-true-phe-coronavirus-death-figures/
16 Jul: The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine: Why no-one can ever recover from COVID-19 in England – a statistical anomaly
by Yoon K Loke, Carl Heneghan
People living in England have become increasingly concerned in the face of Public Health England’s (PHE) figures demonstrating a relentless daily toll of more than a hundred COVID-associated deaths several days a week (see Figure 1).
This is in stark contrast to the more reassuring recovery in neighbouring regions (Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), where there are days with no COVID-associated deaths whatsoever.
One reason for this due is a statistical flaw in the way that PHE compiles ‘out of hospital’ deaths data, rather than any genuine difference between the regions of the UK...
Anyone who has tested COVID positive but subsequently died at a later date of any cause will be included on the PHE COVID death figures.
By this PHE definition, no one with COVID in England is allowed to ever recover from their illness. A patient who has tested positive, but successfully treated and discharged from hospital, will still be counted as a COVID death even if they had a heart attack or were run over by a bus three months later...
PHE data also confirm that more than 125 000 patients have been admitted to NHS hospitals for COVID, the majority being successfully treated and discharged. There are now less than 1900 patients in hospital. So, roughly 80 000 recovered patients in the community will continue being monitored by PHE for the daily death statistics. More and more people (who are mainly in the older age group) are being discharged to the community, but they clearly may die of other illnesses.
This is why ‘out of hospital setting’ deaths remain constantly high (Figure 1), even though the Office of National Statistics data shows there have been fewer deaths than the five year average in the last three weeks, and NHS England data shows a moving average of 19 deaths per day in hospital...
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/why-no-one-can-ever-recover-from-covid-19-in-england-a-statistical-anomaly/
I know people in york and washington counties. This is not good.
What’s in Central PA anyways?
I’ve driven up I-81 many times and don’t remember seeing much between Harrisburg and Scranton.
Central PA is generally regarded as the area between I-99 and the Northeast metro area and the Philly burbs.
On I-81 that would include Chambersburg (Franklin County); Cumberland County; Harrisburg/Hershey (Dauphin County) Lebanon; and Pottsville (Schuykill County)
So it’s the east side of the state, and not central, Central PA?
I consider central PA to be the stem of "Red T" of how James Carville described Pennsylania:
"Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Kentucky in between"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.