Coronavirus Latest: Nearly 28,000 COVID-19 Cases In Pennsylvania As Death Toll Approaches 800
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There are now nearly 28,000 coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania as the death toll approaches 800. Health officials reported 1,245 new cases on Thursday, bringing the statewide total to 27,735.
Sixty more people also died from COVID-19, raising the death toll to 695.
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"COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise in Pennsylvania, and even though the daily increases are not exponential, now is not the time to become complacent," Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said. "We must continue to stay home to protect ourselves, our families, our community. If you must go out, please make as few trips as possible and wear a mask to protect not only yourself, but other people as well. We need all Pennsylvanians to continue to heed these efforts to protect our vulnerable Pennsylvanians, our health care workers and frontline responders."
Dr. Levine says it's not known how long we will be under the stay-at-home order for.
"We can't establish any timetable right now," she said.
Over 113,000 patients have tested negative for the virus.
Meanwhile, Gov. Tom Wolf is now mandating customers and employees at essential businesses must wear face masks.
Many commercial buildings that serve the public will be required to make sure customers wear masks — and deny entry to anyone who refuses without a medically valid reason — under an order signed Wednesday by Dr. Levine.
Employees will have to wear face coverings, too, including those who work in warehouses, manufacturing facilities and other places that remain in business but aren't open to the public.
The mask mandate was included in a wide-ranging order that will govern many aspects of how a business operates — from how it arranges its break room to how many patrons it can allow inside at any one time — as the Wolf administration confronts a pandemic that has killed at least 647 in Pennsylvania and sickened thousands more.
Wolf said the latest order is meant to protect supermarket cashiers, power plant operators and other critical workers who can't stay home and are at heightened risk of contracting the new coronavirus.
"Our essential workers have stepped up to the plate and are keeping us safe, healthy, fed and sheltered during this time, and we all need to thank them (by) doing everything we can to prevent ourselves from spreading the virus to them," he said at a video news conference.
Wolf is ratcheting up pressure on retailers, warehouses and other establishments to enforce social distancing guidelines and minimize the virus's spread just as majority Republicans in the state Legislature seek to ease his administration's shutdown of businesses it doesn't consider "life sustaining."
Wolf previously closed schools and nonessential businesses and ordered people to stay home.
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