COVID-19 hospitalizations result in new state mitigation efforts
Pennsylvania took additional steps Monday to slow the spread of COVID-19 as hospitalizations rise because of patients with the disease.
State Health Secretary Rachel Levine ordered bars, restaurants and privately catered events to suspend on-site alcohol sales for one day, beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday, and issued other recommendations to schools and businesses.
“We are in a very dangerous situation,” Gov. Tom Wolf said during a Monday afternoon briefing.
He also advised the public to stay home to slow the spread of the virus.
The changes came at a time when projections showed Pennsylvania experiencing nearly 22,000 new COVID-19 cases per day in December, a number that suggests the state will run out of ICU beds at that time.
The state announced 49 new deaths over the past two days, none of which occurred in Washington, Greene or Fayette counties. The state also announced 11,837 new cases of the virus during the same time period.
Meanwhile, there were 3,379 patients hospitalized with the virus Monday, a number that has increased by 2,100 since the end of September, Levine said.
Wolf said the number of COVID-19 deaths has quadrupled in the past week, and the average daily case count is seven times higher than it was two months ago.
The state also will boost enforcement at restaurants and retail locations with chronic violations of the masking order, and lower crowd limits to 2,500 outdoors and 500 indoors. Violators could be issued a warning for the first violation, a 24-hour shutdown for the second and a fine and 24-hour shut-down for the third violation.
Schools in areas deemed a substantial risk for COVID-19, which include Washington, Fayette and Greene, must attest to following the orders and guidance or risk being shifted to remote-only learning.
Washington County added 119 new cases Monday, taking its total to 3,886. Greene County added 30 cases to its total of 614, and Fayette saw 41 new cases added to its total of 1,717.