Pennsylvania reports 72 new covid-19 deaths; total coronavirus cases now top 55K

Pennsylvania reported 72 more deaths from covid-19 and more than 1,000 newly confirmed cases as of Saturday morning, pushing the statewide coronavirus case count above 55,000.

Hospitals are treating 2,283 patients with the disease, and 482 of those patients are on ventilators. Another 20 patients are on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, life support machines.

A total of 3,688 people who tested positive for covid-19 have died from the disease, state health department data show.

About 68% of those deaths — or 2,518 people — were residents of nursing homes or other personal care facilities.

The total number of deaths has risen by hundreds in recent days as Department of Health officials work to catch up with data coming in from Philadelphia and other counties. Probable deaths that involve patients who were not tested for the disease are not included in the state’s tally.

The state’s total coronavirus cases reached 55,316, with patients confirmed in all 67 of the state’s counties.

“I am proud of the work that Pennsylvanians have done so far, but we cannot stop now, we must continue to take the necessary steps to protect ourselves from covid-19,” Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said in a statement.

Health care workers accounted for 3,700 covid-19 cases, up from less than 3,000 such cases reported a week ago.

Nursing homes account for more than 12,800 cases, up from less than 10,000 such cases reported as of a week ago.

Those infected include 11,239 residents and 1,605 employees across 530 facilities in 44 counties. The state continues to refuse to release the nursing home case and death information by facility.

Starting Friday, two dozen northern counties began the move into the yellow phase of Gov. Tom Wolf’s red/yellow/green reopening plan. He announced 13 more counties — Allegheny, Westmoreland, Butler, Armstrong, Washington and Greene among them — will shift to the yellow zone on May 15.

“As we prepare to move a number of counties from red to yellow, we need all Pennsylvanians to continue to follow the social distancing and mitigation efforts in place,” Levine said. “We must continue to protect our most vulnerable Pennsylvanians, which includes our seniors, those with underlying health issues, our healthcare workers and our first responders.”

Allegheny County reported 1 new death, for a total of 120 deaths and 1,485 cases as of Saturday morning.

Westmoreland County added two new cases, for a total of 415, and at least 30 confirmed deaths now reported by the state.

Statewide, nearly 222,000 people have tested negative for covid-19. No children in Pennsylvania have died from the disease.

Age breakdown of total positive cases:

0-4: ​< 1%

​5-12: ​< 1%

​13-18: ​1%

​19-24: 6%

​25-49: ​37%

​50-64: ​26%

​65+: ​28%

Age breakdown of hospitalization rates by age group:

​0-29: ​2%

30-49: 5%

50-64: 10%

​65-79: 20%

​80+: 19%

The state has updated an interactive map that allows users to search for cases by county and ZIP code.

RELATED: Allegheny County reports 1 more covid-19 death, 31 new cases