Montgomery County Board of Commissioners Chair Dr. Valerie Arkoosh.
Montgomery County officials announced 160 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, with 24 of them occurring in the North Penn area and 29 more reported in the neighboring municipalities.
In the North Penn area, Montgomery Township and Hatfield Township have the most cases with 30 each, followed by Upper Gwynedd Township with 27, Lansdale Borough with 24, Towamencin Township with 10, Hatfield Borough with seven and North Wales Borough with one.
Total cases in the North Penn area currently stand at 129.
Cases in the neighboring communities continued to increase as well, with 29 new cases announced on Tuesday. Municipal totals are as follows:
Totals across the surrounding municipalities currently stands at 191 cases.
As of Tuesday afternoon, cases in Montgomery County have increased to 1,294 total across 59 of the county's 62 municipalities. The only municipalities within the county to not report a positive case are Pennsburg and West Conshohocken.
The coronavirus has also claimed the lives of 32 Montgomery County residents—five new since Monday—including the death of a 94-year-old male from Upper Gwynedd, which represents the third coronavirus death within the last week that occurred in the township.
Montgomery County Board of Commissioners Chair Dr. Valerie Arkoosh also provided an update on cases across the county’s nursing homes, stating that 34 of the 75 nursing homes within the county are reporting a total 140 cases among residents and another 53 cases among staff members. Arkoosh added that one unidentified nursing home has between 16 to 20 cases, and another has between 20 to 25 cases.
Regarding the modeling that showed a looming surge of cases for the county, Arkoosh said that she hopes we’re close to the peak, and added that modeling for Pennsylvania as a whole “looks good.”
“We’re hoping it doesn’t get much worse for us,” Arkoosh said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Pennsylvania reported 1,579 additional coronavirus cases, bringing the statewide total to 14,559 cases across 67 counties. The coronavirus death toll also increased by 78 since yesterday, bringing the total to 240 deaths across the commonwealth.
“Now more than ever, as we continue to see COVID-19 cases and deaths rise in Pennsylvania, we need Pennsylvanians to take action,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said. “Those actions should be to stay calm, stay home and stay safe. If you must go out, please limit it to as few trips as possible and wear a mask to protect not only yourself, but other people as well. We need all Pennsylvanians to heed these efforts to protect our vulnerable Pennsylvanians, and also our healthcare workers and frontline responders.”
Levine said that the dramatic increase in deaths since yesterday was not a result of the anticipated surge; rather, it was due to a delay in the reporting systems.
“Today’s significant increase in deaths is due to a lag time of reporting into our system,” said Levine.
Of the state’s near 15,000 coronavirus cases, 664 have occurred in healthcare workers, 674 are in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes, 1,165 are hospitalized—roughly 11-percent of cases—and 548 have required the use of a ventilator.
In total, 76719 residents have tested negative for the virus. Recovery statistics are not currently available at the state or county level, as officials said that data would require each person to self-report their recovery.
That said, with most agencies reporting an approximate two-percent mortality rate for the COVID-19 coronavirus, it can be deduced that 98-percent of cases are expected to recover.
Community Testing Site Closures
Both of the community testing sites—one in Montgomery County, one in Philadelphia County—will cease operations on April 10.
In response to a question from North Penn Now during Tuesday’s press conference, Levine stated that those sites will close due to the withdrawal of federal funding.
“Those two sites were set up a number weeks ago in collaboration with the federal government,” Levine said, adding that the federal government provided site funding, materials, testing equipment and funds for testing. “As of [April 10 ], the federal government is withdrawing that funding, those supplies and their testing materials, and so Philadelphia and Montgomery counties have decided to cease those testing [sites].”
See also:
North Penn Area Coronavirus Cases Increase To 105, Countywide Cases At 1,134 With 27 Deaths
Second Coronavirus Death Reported In Upper Gwynedd Township, 15 New Cases In North Penn Area
Third Coronavirus Death Reported In Horsham Township, Countywide Cases Near 900
Upper Gwynedd Woman Dies From Coronavirus, Cases Increase By 71 Across County
Lansdale Doubles Amount Of Positive Coronavirus Cases, County Sees 113 New Cases Since Yesterday
