Pa. reports 102 additional covid-19 deaths; Gov. Wolf to move more counties from red phase to yellow

The nearly 1,000 new coronavirus cases reported by state health officials on Thursday pushed Pennsylvania’s running case count past 65,000 as the state also added 102 new virus-related deaths.

The covid-19 death toll across the state now stands at 4,869. All of the deaths have been adults, according to Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine, though she said earlier this week that a child living in a different state died in Pennsylvania from the virus.

The 980 new cases reported to the Department of Health throughout the day Wednesday increases the running tally to 65,392. It has been 11 weeks since the first cases in the state were diagnosed on March 6.

A dozen more counties, including Beaver, are set to move into the yellow phase of the state’s tiered reopening plan on Friday. The yellow phase lifts the stay-at-home order and allows for retailers to open under certain restrictions.

Gov. Tom Wolf said on a conference call with members of the media that he will hold a news conference Friday to address more counties moving from one phase to another.

“I’ll be announcing a host of counties tomorrow moving from red to yellow,” he said, “and the hope is that we’ll also be (naming) some counties that might even be moving from yellow to green tomorrow.”

Neither Wolf nor Levine have addressed the criteria counties must meet to move into the green phase, which lifts all pandemic-related restrictions.

In Allegheny County, health officials reported no new covid-19 deaths for the second day, though 31 new cases of the virus were identified. In Westmoreland, deaths remained at 38, and two new cases brought the running count to 434.

Across the state, 303,514 people have tested negative for covid-19.

The number of nursing homes reporting at least one case of the virus among residents or staff has grown to 570. Statewide, 14,113 long-term care residents have contracted the virus, and 3,234 have died.