Mar 26, 2020 3 min read

Pennsylvania recorded five new coronavirus deaths Thursday, taking the total number of victims to 16 as the number of cases has skyrocketed in the state.

The number of statewide cases of the virus rose since Wednesday by 560, taking the total Thursday to 1,687.

“The reality is we’re just seeing the beginning of this crisis,” Gov. Tom Wolf said in a 2 p.m. briefing on the state’s response to COVID-19. “We must prepare ourselves to be in this for the long haul.”

“We have seen case counts continue to increase, and the best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is to stay home,” health Secretary Rachel Levine said.

Wolf announced Thursday that he would make $50 million in transfers of state funding to purchase medical equipment and supplies for hospitals, nursing homes and emergency workers who are on the front lines dealing with the pandemic.

“We need more beds, more ventilators, more personal protective equipment, and so much more, and we need it as soon as possible because the virus is here,” Wolf said.

Levine said the state has distributed hundreds of thousands of supplies to hospitals, health systems, health-care providers, counties and emergency responders. The supplies included masks, gloves, gowns and goggles.

“This underscores the need for us to stay home as much as possible,” Levine said.

Wolf said the virus has the ability to hide for 14 days.

“We must act ask if we all have it,” Wolf said.

Washington County had a dozen cases of the virus, an increase of two since Wednesday, state records show. Greene County added another positive case, taking its total to three. The cases doubled in Fayette County to eight positive cases. Westmoreland County showed 24 cases, up from 16 Wednesday.

Allegheny County recorded 45 new cases of coronavirus Thursday morning as the number of patients with the virus was expected to increase statewide.

The county’s health department said there were 133 positive cases of the virus in Allegheny, that 20 of those patients were hospitalized.

The 20 hospitalized patients were not straining the Allegheny’s hospitals, but that could change if there is surge in cases, the county said.

There were no additional deaths in that county from the virus that has killed two people there, the department said.

Ten counties remained under stay-home orders, including Erie and Allegheny. The number of tests that showed negative results were 16,441.

Levine said 170 of the positive cases statewide required hospitalization, and that 32 of them needed ventilators since the first positive case of COVID-19 was recorded in the state March 6.

Meanwhile, Wolf said he also asked the state Department of Agriculture to waive eligibility requirements for the Emergency Food Assistance Program. He also asked the agriculture department to reconsider Pennsylvania’s request for temporary waivers to allow more food to be distributed at school feeding sites and food banks; and to be flexible and change its interpretation of recent changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“It is inhumane to consider that Pennsylvanians who are doing the responsible thing by staying home to stop the spread of COVID-19 in our communities would go hungry because of USDA’s limiting interpretations and refusal to cut bureaucratic red tape during a national crisis,” he stated in a news release.