Montgomery County officials announced more than 110 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, with 12 of them occurring in the North Penn area and 11 more reported in the neighboring municipalities.
The biggest increase was Lansdale Borough, who doubled up from five positive cases as of yesterday to 10 total being reported today. The borough is the fourth municipality in the North Penn area to report double-digit cases, joining Montgomery Township with 14, Hatfield Township with 10 and Upper Gwynedd Township with 10.
On the lower end, Towamencin Township is reporting five positive cases, North Wales Borough is reporting one positive case, and Hatfield Borough remains the only municipality in the North Penn area with no cases.
Cases in the neighboring communities continued to increases as well, with 11 new cases announced on Thursday. The totals are as follows:
As of Thursday afternoon, cases in Montgomery County have increased to 707 total across 55 of the county's 62 municipalities. The coronavirus has also claimed the lives of 12 Montgomery County residents across nine municipalities.
In a vacuum, the 113 new cases reported since yesterday would seem to be a fairly large increase—especially in comparison to Wednesday’s increase of 31 new cases—but Montgomery County Board of Commissioners President Dr. Valerie Arkoosh said that the high number was simply a result of a large amount of test results coming in from the labs.
“I want people to understand that this doesn’t mean that we had a huge surge today,” said Arkoosh. “We are consistently seeing that 13-percent to 16-percent of all individuals we test come back with a positive test.”
Though the amount of new positive cases has been steady percentage wise, Arkoosh reiterated that models show a surge towards the middle of April, which is when cases are forecasted to peak across the county.
“We do anticipate that we will see a higher percentage of positives in the days ahead,” said Arkoosh. “Modeling suggests that the middle of the month is where we should see our peak number of cases.”
Earlier on Thursday, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine announced the commonwealth had seen 1,211 new cases since yesterday, bringing the total to 7,016 positive cases across 62 counties.
Of those positives, 730 people have been hospitalized, 216 people required treatment in an intensive care unit and 130 people required the use of a ventilator. Levine added that 345 healthcare workers have tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus, and 10-percent of the state’s nursing homes have reported at least one positive case.
To date, 90 Pennsylvania residents have died from the coronavirus.
See also:
Hatfield Township Up To 10 Coronavirus Cases, County Closing In On 600
Coronavirus Cases Continue Increase Locally, Officials Announce Two Deaths In Horsham Township
North Penn Coronavirus Cases Continue To Increase, County Surpasses 500 Cases
North Penn Area Coronavirus Cases Up To 25, Montco Up To 431 Cases And Five Deaths
North Penn Area COVID-19 Cases Up To 24, Montco Up To 404 Cases And Five Deaths
