PA Coronavirus Cases Top 55,000, 72 New Deaths Reported

HARRISBURG, PA — More than 1,000 new cases of the coronavirus were identified in Pennsylvania Saturday, according to state officials.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health Saturday confirmed new 1,078 positive cases of COVID-19. These new cases bring the statewide total to 55,316.

In addition to the 1,078 new cases, the state reported 72 new deaths Saturday. As of Saturday, the state has seen 3,688 coronavirus deaths.

There are 221,791 patients who have tested negative to date.

Of the patients who have tested positive to date the age breakdown is as follows:

• Nearly 1 percent are 0 to 4 years old;
• nearly 1 percent are 5 to 12 years old;
• 1 percent are 13 to 18 years old;
• nearly 6 percent are 19 to 24 years old;
• 37 percent are 25 to 49 years old;
• 26 percent are 50 to 64 years old;
• and nearly 28 percent are 65 or older.

Most of the patients hospitalized are aged 65 or older, and most of the deaths have occurred in patients 65 or older, officials said Saturday.

According to officials, 11,239 cases are in nursing home or personal care home residents. Employees of nursing homes or personal care home account for 1,605 cases

Residents and employees with the virus total 12,844 at 530 distinct facilities in 44 counties. As for deaths, 2,518 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities.

About 3,685 of cases in Pennsylvania are health care workers.

Officials said the virus is in all 67 counties.

The governor's stay-at-home order has been extended to June 4 for all counties currently in the red phase of coronavirus mitigation measures.

A "yellow phase order" is in place for 24 counties that will begin to see easement of the mitigation measures. Those counties are Bradford, Cameron, Centre, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Montour, Northumberland, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Union, Venango, and Warren.

Thirteen additional counties will move to yellow on May 15. The counties slated to move into the yellow phase next week are: Allegheny; Armstrong; Bedford; Blair; Butler; Cambria; Fayette; Fulton; Greene; Indiana; Somerset; Washington; and Westmoreland.

"As we prepare to move a number of counties from red to yellow, we need all Pennsylvanians to continue to follow the social distancing and mitigation efforts in place," Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said. "We must continue to protect our most vulnerable Pennsylvanians, which includes our seniors, those with underlying health issues, our healthcare workers and our first responders. I am proud of the work that Pennsylvanians have done so far, but we cannot stop now, we must continue to take the necessary steps to protect ourselves from COVID-19."

Three counties — Beaver, Lebanon, and Dauphin — all plan to reopen May 15 despite still being designated as "red" counties.

>>>Full coverage of coronavirus in Pennsylvania