115 new coronavirus deaths reported in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania reported more than 100 new coronavirus-related deaths Friday, bringing the overall death toll to just under 5,000.

With the addition of 115 deaths, the statewide total now stands at 4,984. State health officials recorded 866 new cases of the virus throughout the day Thursday, pushing the running case count to 66,258.

Department of Health officials said in a statement that 481 of the positive cases were probable cases, meaning the individual either had symptoms and close contact with a confirmed positive case or tested positive via a blood test for antibodies associated with covid-19.

Across the state, 312,743 people have tested negative. Officials did not indicate how many of those negatives came from antibody tests.

In Allegheny County, health officials cited two more deaths for a total of 146 and 21 new cases for a total of 1,739. The state was reporting 154 deaths in the county as of Friday. Allegheny County officials said the reason for the difference is in the state’s reporting databases. The county has access to only one of the two systems from which the state collects its data.

The first cases were diagnosed in the county on March 14, about a week after the first case was identified in the state.

Allegheny and Westmoreland counties have been in the yellow phase of the state’s tiered reopening plan for a week. County officials have said that it’s too soon to tell whether a spike is occurring because test data likely would not reflect those results for another two weeks.

Beaver County, which is up to 550 cases and 71 deaths, moved to the yellow phase at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday announced the first counties that will move to the green phase of the state’s reopening:

Bradford, Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Crawford, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, McKean, Montour, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Venango and Warren.

Eight others will move to the yellow phase: Dauphin, Franklin, Huntingdon, Lebanon, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike and Schuylkill.