Coronavirus Pennsylvania: COVID-19 Cases Top 25,000 Statewide As Death Toll Climbs Above 600
PHILADELPHIA (CBS/AP) -- The number of coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania has topped 25,000 as more than 600 people have now died from COVID-19. Health officials announced Tuesday 1,146 additional COVID-19 cases, bringing the statewide total to 25,345.
Sixty more deaths were also reported, raising the death toll to 643.
"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," Pennsylvania 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."
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Over 108,000 patients have tested negative for the virus.
Meantime, in a six-minute address from his Capitol offices on Monday night, Gov. Tom Wolf said the tough measures to shut down the economy are making progress in blunting the spread of the virus and preventing hospitals from becoming overwhelmed.
But, Wolf said, how the state gets past this stage is still "far from perfectly clear." He wants to see a drop in the number of new cases and more protective equipment for health care workers, he said.
"We do not have a hard and fast metric for exactly when we achieve victory, but we know we need to develop one," he said. "And we will, soon."
Meanwhile, he said, reopening the economy will depend on more and better testing that reveals who is sick and who is immune.
Earlier, Wolf joined the governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware to announce that they will share information and form a task force to help guide the reopening of the states' economies once the crisis recedes.
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