Pennsylvania sees 2,900 new coronavirus cases, highest daily increase since pandemic began
Pennsylvania’s Department of Health reported 2,900 new positive cases of coronavirus on Thursday, following a day where the state saw over 2,700 cases. There were also 47 new deaths announced.
The first days of November are continuing a spike in coronavirus cases that started in October. The state has seen cases over 2,000 for 12 days of the past 15.
The state accumulated 49,060 cases in October, while September recorded just under 25,000 cases and August saw about 22,000 cases.
The new cases bring the state’s total to 220,566 since the pandemic began in March.
The biggest jump in cases on Thursday was in Philadelphia County with 512. Allegheny County had 189 new cases, while Westmoreland County had 56 new cases. There were 19 counties in the state with new case counts of over 50. A month ago on this date, there was only one such county.
The state death toll is now 8,937. Of the 47 newly reported deaths, 18 are from November and 29 are from October.
Four of the newly reported deaths are from Oct. 28, bringing that day’s total to 31. That’s only the third day since June 12 with 30 or more actual deaths: June 12 (30), Aug. 7 (35) and Oct. 28 (31).
The department stated that 288,689 tests were administered within the last seven days between Oct. 29 and Wednesday with 16,992 positive cases.
More than 2.6 million people in the state have been tested for the virus. The overall PCR test positivity is 8%.
The state dashboard shows that there are 1,599 people currently hospitalized with 147 on ventilators.
According to the state, there are 26,902 resident cases of covid-19 in nursing and personal care homes, and 5,785 cases among employees, for a total of 32,687 at 1,100 distinct facilities.
Out of the total number of deaths, 5,758 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities.
Approximately 12,747 of the total cases in the state are among health care workers.
The department said that mask-wearing is required in all businesses, stressing that mask-wearing is one way to help prevent the spread of covid-19.
Frank Carnevale is the TribLive multimedia editor. He started at the Trib in 2016 and has been part of several news organizations, including the Providence Journal and Orlando Sentinel. He can be reached at fcarnevale@triblive.com.
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