Pennsylvania health officials reported just 5 new cases of COVID-19 among Schuylkill County residents in the past 2 days.
And for the fourth straight day, local hospitals are reporting 0 patients being treated for COVID-19 complications at their facilities.
1 New Case of COVID-19 Reported in Schuylkill County on September 9
On Thursday, the state Health Dept. reported just 1 new case. There were 4 new cases reported on Wednesday.
The death toll from COVID-19 complications remains at 51 in Schuylkill County. And the last reported death from the virus happened back on Aug. 5, more than a month ago.
Recent Coronavirus Case Totals Very Low – Many Have Survived
Over the past 14 days, there have been only 47 new cases of the virus reported in Schuylkill County. That’s an average of 3.3 per day.
That’s a relatively very low number, comparatively, to statewide figures. On Thursday, the state reported just 587 new cases of China virus infections in all 67 Pennsylvania counties. The state presumes that about 81% of people have recovered after being infected by COVID-19.
Looking at the Schuylkill County figures, if you combine the cumulative number of confirmed cases (989) with the number of probable cases (34) and then subtract the number of people who’ve died as a result of their infection (51) and the number of new cases in the last 14 days (47), one could possibly presume that 925 of the 1,023 (90.4%) who’ve contracted the disease have recovered.
A total of 16,804 people from Schuylkill County have tested negative. Only approximately 12% of Schuylkill County has received a COVID-19 test. Health officials only suggest people get tested for the virus if they exhibit symptoms of an infection.
Long Term Care Facilities and COVID-19 in Schuylkill County
A total of 237 of Schuylkill County’s confirmed and probable positive cases of coronavirus are linked to long term care facility employees and residents. And 29 of the county’s 51 deaths are among LTCF residents here (or about 57%).
Congregate Settings Resume in Schuylkill County
And in the last two weeks, Schuylkill County residents have begun the most amount of known congregate activity since the start of the pandemic with local schools opening. On Friday, across the county, high school sports gets into full swing with a number of football games being played.
However, crowds at those games are still being limited or banned due to statewide pandemic restrictions still being in place.
Legislation approved by both the Pennsylvania House and Senate would give local schools the ability to set their own limits on crowd sizes for high school sports events. Right now, statewide orders mandate that outdoor events in bigger stadiums for football and soccer limit crowds to 250 people, including players, coaches, and gameday staff. The limit for indoor games, such as volleyball, is just 25 people.
PA Governor Tom Wolf promises to veto that legislation but members of the General Assembly believe they have the votes to overturn that veto.
That’s not sitting well with Wolf.
“This bill gives (local schools) unilateral authority to suspend the rules that we put into place,” Wolf said Thursday during a press conference. “That’s willfully ignoring the fact that that virus really likes it when people get together.”
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