Rural Pennsylvania may not have a high count of COVID-19 cases, but the state’s top health official is warning that could change quickly if people don’t follow mitigation efforts.
In her daily update Thursday, state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine reiterated her call for social distancing, public masking and hand washing, as well the state’s “stay at home” order.
“We’re very pleased the rest of the state has been less affected,” she said.
She was asked why businesses must remain closed in those less affected areas if proper guidelines can be followed.
“We know the number of cases we have is underreported,” Levine said, explaining there are still shortages of testing supplies and reagents. “We know the number of cases in those rural counties are higher than we can verify and record.”
While she acnowledged the risk is somewhat less in rural areas, she added, “The time is right to continue to stay home and prevent COVID-19 from flourishing in those communities.”
With a lack of testing kits available in rural areas, do officials really know if Pennsylvania is really flattening the curve? Yes, she said, because there are a number of factors considered to form that opinion. Levine mentioned “syndromic surveillance,” and the monitoring of hospital admissions and discharges for influenza-like ailments, fever and cough. “They are all going down,” she said. “It is correct that we need to expand testing as far as we can.”
State officials are in talks about a potential extension of the current stay-at-home order, and about steps to take to reopen the state, Levine said. She explained that Gov. Tom Wolf will make those announcements when those plans are ready.
“The right thing now is we have to continue those mitigation efforts to prevent our health care system from being overwhelmed,” she said. “Discussions are going on about the path forward, how we are going to work to improve the economy and relax social distancing.”
During the update, Levine was asked about a protest planned for Monday in Harrisburg where thousands of people, led by ReOpen PA, End the Lockdown PA and Pennsylvania Against Excessive Quarantine, will gather to protest extending any mitigation orders beyond May 1.
Levine said, “You are putting all of yourselves at risk.”
Anyone not wearing masks and gloves, and anyone who isn’t following social distancing guidelines “will be more at risk for contracting this dangerous virus,” she said. And then, they are at a higher risk of taking the virus home with them and spreading it even more.
As of Thursday, there were 1,245 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 27,735. Of that, 1,401 are in health care workers. There have been 707 deaths among those who have tested positive.
As of noon Thursday, there were 2,503 patients hospitalized, 664 of whom required the use of a ventilator. “Across our health system now, approximately 41 percent of our hospital beds, 37 percent of our intensive care unit beds and nearly 70 percent of our ventilators are still available,” she said.
“Trends show Pennsylvanians’ sacrifice to stay at home is working,” Levine said. “To date, our health care system is staying stable. We have not seen a wave of cases that have overwhelmed our health care system.”
She was asked if instead of all the protective measures, wouldn’t it have been better to let the virus spread to develop “herd immunity?” No, she said. “COVID-19 is 10 to 20 times more contagious than the flu. If we had let it spread, we would have around 70,000 cases. Letting it spread through the community would have potentially been catastrophic for the state, and potentially overwhelmed our health care system.”
