Your daily coronavirus update: Health Department reports 26 new deaths in Pa. from coronavirus
“As we see the number of new COVID-19 cases continuously change across the state that does not mean we can stop practicing social distancing,”
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The Associated Press
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» Day-by-day look at coronavirus disease cases in Pa.
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(Harrisburg) — State health officials are announcing 26 new deaths associated with the coronavirus in Pennsylvania, bringing the total in the commonwealth to 2,444.
Officials also announced Sunday that the number of positive cases has topped 49,000.
Most hospitalizations and deaths have occurred in patients 65 or older. Of the total deaths, 1,635 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities.
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The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick. There is no data on how many people have recovered.
“As we see the number of new COVID-19 cases continuously change across the state that does not mean we can stop practicing social distancing,” Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said. “We must continue to stay home to protect ourselves, our families and our community. If you must go out, please make as few trips as possible and wear a mask to protect not only yourself, but others. We need all Pennsylvanians to continue to heed these efforts to protect our vulnerable Pennsylvanians, our health care workers and frontline responders.”
Of the patients who have tested positive to date the age breakdown is as follows:
- Nearly 1% are aged 0-4;
- Nearly 1% are aged 5-12;
- 1% are aged 13-18;
- Nearly 6% are aged 19-24;
- Nearly 38% are aged 25-49;
- Nearly 27% are aged 50-64; and
- Nearly 27% are aged 65 or older.
Kate Landis / PA Post
The closed Fulton Theatre in Lancaster on April 19, 2020.
A total of 8,754 people in central Pennsylvania have tested positive for the virus since the first cases were reported in the region on March 13. In the region, 332 people have died from COVID-19.
Today’s update includes three newly reported deaths in Dauphin County, and one in Cumberland County.
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- Adams: 145 cases, including 4 deaths
- Berks: 2886 cases, including 118 deaths
- Columbia: 291 cases, including 13 deaths
- Cumberland: 373 cases, including 18 deaths
- Dauphin: 634 cases, including 28 deaths
- Franklin: 351 cases, including 8 deaths
- Juniata: 86 cases, including 1 death
- Lancaster: 1936 cases, including 112 deaths
- Lebanon: 735 cases, including 10 deaths
- Mifflin: 39 cases
- Northumberland: 99 cases
- Perry: 34 cases, including 1 death
- Schuylkill: 395 cases, including 7 deaths
- Snyder: 33 cases, including 1 death
- Union: 38 cases
- York: 679 cases, including 11 deaths
For most people, it causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in a couple of weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems are at higher risk of more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.
Stay-at-home protest
Hundreds of protesters chanted and carried signs outside the home of Governor Tom Wolf to protest his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and call for an end to restrictions on business activity.
The York Daily Record reports that 100 to 200 people paced along the street Saturday afternoon outside Gov. Tom Wolf’s house in York County, repeatedly chanting “open up” toward the house. Members of the governor’s security team wouldn’t comment on whether Wolf was home.
Kate Landis / PA Post
A hand-written sign states a limit to the number of customers allowed in the Home Depot in Lancaster on April 19, 2020.
“Open the doors as of Monday,” Joyce Cordell of Hamlin, Wayne County said from a motorized cart. “It’s not right to keep us closed up.”
Her county was not among the two dozen among the state’s 67 counties that will have some restrictions eased May 8, although it had 105 cases and a handful of deaths.
“I am here to help my daughter and all of these people get back to work,” Cordell said. “I support my fellow Americans in getting life back to some kind of normal.”
Karen Bosco, a 62-year-old retired safety consultant from York Haven, said the governor is “killing small business.”
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