'Significant hospitalization rates': Coronavirus taking a toll in Pa.

As coronavirus cases continue to rise rapidly across Pennsylvania, the state is seeing “significant hospitalization rates,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said Thursday.

“It really is varying day to day,” Levine said during a daily covid-19 update. The reported average hospitalization rate is about 10%. Levine said Pennsylvania’s rate “might not be quite that amount, but that’s about right.”

As the number of patients increases, so too will the strain on hospitals.

“We are working with all hospitals and health care systems … to prepare them for that potential surge over the next number of weeks,” Levine said.

That includes asking hospitals to update their emergency plans and have them in place by midnight, as well as axing red tape that would delay the addition of hospital beds.

The state has also asked hospitals to evaluate their process for elective surgeries. Delaying those surgeries would free up hospital beds and save protective gear.

The number of covid-19 cases in Pennsylvania rose to 185 on Thursday – up nearly 40% from the day prior. So far, 1,608 patients have tested negative, meaning a little more than 10% of those tested have been positive.

State officials are not offering more specific location information for positive cases, referring to them only by county.

State health officials have stopped using the term “presumptive positive,” as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have loosened testing rules, and tests no longer have to be confirmed by the federal lab in Atlanta.

Levine said she and other health officials continue to believe that the actual number of covid-19 cases is higher than what’s being reported because some people are not being tested.

The criteria for the state laboratory are still focused on patients who have a travel history or might have had specific contact with someone who has the virus. In terms of hospitals, Levine said, medical professionals there should test anyone who has symptoms and send the test to commercial or hospital labs.

“We’re not recommending at this time that we test people who are asymptomatic,” she said. “If you’re asymptomatic, unless you have a known exposure, a negative test really doesn’t mean that much because you could test positive later.

“If someone is symptomatic, then we are recommending they (get tested),” she said.

Levine said the increase in the number of cases has led to a shift in the health department’s messaging.

“If you have very mild symptoms — you might have a slight fever or cough — if you’re not very ill, you might consider just staying home,” she said.

Those patients can call their doctor, but she doesn’t recommend they go to an emergency room.

“It is possible you might have covid-19,” she said. “I think staying home would be really, really prudent.”