Health secretary: ‘We have been able to bend that curve’
For anyone who seeks silver linings in the cloud of COVID-19, the state’s secretary of health provided a few on Saturday.
During her daily virtual press briefing, Dr. Rachel Levine acknowledged that the number of people testing positive in Pennsylvania has leveled to some degree.
“Previously, we were seeing an exponential rise of COVID-19,” she said. “We were seeing a doubling of new cases approximately every two to three days.”
She credited mitigation efforts at the state level and residents’ following such directives as helping the cause.
“We are seeing new cases every day, but we’re not seeing as many new cases as we had before,” Levine said. “So the tentative conclusion is that we have been able to bend that curve.
“And the goal is that as we reach the ‘surge’ that’s been talked about, that it will be a wave of new cases that will come up and go down,” she continued, “but it won’t be a tidal wave that would completely overwhelm our healthcare system.”
As of noon Saturday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 1,676 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 21,655. The department also reported 78 new deaths among positive cases, for a total of 494.
Regionally, no deaths attributable to the disease had been confirmed in Washington and Greene counties. The number of cases stood at 66 and 23, respectively.
Other figures included 50 cases and three deaths in Fayette County, 836 cases and 19 deaths in Allegheny County, and 218 and six deaths in Westmoreland County.
Levine also said that health officials are looking forward to the expansion of testing for antibodies associated with COVID-19.
“Previously, all of our testing has been testing various types of nasal swabs for the presence of the virus itself. Antibody testing, or serology, is different. That doesn’t test, actually, for whether you have the virus now,” she explained. “It tests for whether you had it in the past and whether you’re immune to it. And I think that’s going to be really important in the future.”
At present, only one such test has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, and it has yet to be widely available, according to Levine.
“But we’re hoping for availability in the next number of weeks – we’re not sure exactly when – of either that test or other tests to be able to start that type of testing,” she said, noting that the process could begin with the likes of healthcare personnel, those in long-term living and food workers. “It won’t be widespread yet, although that’s a goal for the future. But we want to view that targeted type of testing to see who’s immune.”
Regarding calls for somewhat of a return to normalcy to occur relatively soon, Levine urged caution.
“I understand the Legislature’s concern about the economy and the desire to stimulate the economy, but now is not the time. Now is the time for people to stay home and non-life-sustaining businesses to be closed,” she said. “But that will not be forever, and we are actually working with the governor and the administration in terms of plans for when and how Pennsylvania will reopen.”
The process, she explained, will not be immediate.
“It’s going to go in a progressive fashion as we look at the numbers of cases, the numbers of new cases, the percentage of cases in a county or in a municipality that are positive, and all of those different factors in collaboration with people in the counties as we start to open things up,” Levine said.
She also pointed out:
“The virus determines the timetable. We don’t determine the timetable. So it’s impossible to give you a date.”