Pa. Health Secretary: Fall coronavirus surge likely is not over

Covid-19 continues to surge across Pennsylvania and the United States as a whole, with the percent positivity rate rising along with the case count. The state’s top health officials said Monday the fall resurgence likely isn’t over.

“I don’t think we have peaked,” said Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine. “If you look at our curve, it mirrors that of the country.”

The state reported 3,402 new cases of the virus on Monday and 2,909 on Sunday.

“We are now seeing the highest case counts of the covid-19 pandemic,” she said. “This is a sobering look at our current reality.”

She pointed to the rising number of hospitalizations in the state – 1,735 on Monday. That’s about 500 more than one week ago.

“Covid-19 is right here, and we are at a critical point,” Levine said. “We all need to take steps. If we don’t, we put ourselves, our families and our communities and health systems at risk.”

Case investigators and contact tracers, Levine said, continue to struggle with getting those who test positive for the virus to cooperate. She reiterated the process is anonymous, and while close contacts are informed they’ve come into contact with someone with the virus, they’re not told who.

Between Oct. 25 and 31, 15,412 new cases of the virus were confirmed, according to Department of Health data. Of those cases, only 21% — or about 3,244 people — answered questions about gatherings, restaurants or other businesses they’d gone to in the two weeks prior to testing positive.

Of those who did answer, 606 people reported going to a business in the past 14 days. That number broke down as follows:

• 322 said they’d been to a restaurant;
• 80 said they’d been to a bar;
• 75 said they had gone to a gym;
• 46 said they had been to a salon or barbershop;
• 156 said they’d been to some other type of business.

Data indicated that only around 21% of the 15,412 new cases in late October told case investigators whether or not they’d been to a mass gathering. Of those, 618 answered yes.

“Even if you think you will not get the virus, it is important to think about those who would get very sick if they get the virus,” Levine said. “Think about vulnerable seniors, including our parents, our grandparents. Senior citizens, no matter where they are living, are at greater risk from exposure to this virus. The impact can be deadly; we have seen this.”