Delco Officials Urge Coronavirus Guidance Compliance Amid Surge

DELAWARE COUNTY, PA — Delaware County officials are urging residents to follow coronavirus mitigation guidance as the county is seeing a surge of cases and experiencing community spread.

During a news conference Friday, officials said the county's percent positive rate is nearly 13 percent as of Friday. The rate is now 12.7 percent.

Officials compared that figure to the rate recorded on Nov. 6, which was 6.5 percent.

Additionally, the incident rate per 100,000 people increased from 149.3 on Nov. 6 to 318 Friday.

During the early months of the pandemic, the county’s highest count of coronavirus cases for a
single day was 232.

According to the Chester County Department of Health, Delaware County to date has had 21,281 cases and 873 deaths, as of Friday. The county's recovery rate is at 66.52 percent and 160,531 negative test results have come back in Delaware County, as of Friday.

The county was given additional coronavirus mitigation efforts by Pennsylvania Department of Health on Nov. 23.

The efforts say individuals in bars, restaurants, and other retail food establishments must wear masks except when actually eating or drinking; bars, restaurants, and other retail food establishments must limit the number of individuals at a table to four; events or gatherings of more than 10 people indoors are prohibited.

Gatherings are described as a temporary grouping of individuals that takes place over a limited timeframe, such as hours or days.

Groups of people who share a space within a building during the course of operations, such as in an office building, classroom, production floor, or regularly occurring operation of a business or organization, are not considered events or gatherings.

"To the residents who aren’t following the guidance, please don’t jeopardize our businesses and possibly schools staying open," Councilwoman Elaine Paul Schaefer. "Please don’t put a strain on our essential healthcare workers and first responders. And please don’t put our community at risk. We are urging you to do the right thing. Have personal responsibility. Think about our community as a whole- and not just yourself."

The order applies to funeral homes; any venue holding an indoor event such as a wedding, private party, show, etc.; indoor school sports and youth and adult recreational sports; and school activities outside of the classroom that are not related to educational instruction.

Religious gatherings and classroom settings are not affected by the order. The Department of Health encourages places of worship to find alternative ways to hold services, including virtual and outdoors, and to employ social distancing and mask-wearing during services.

The new order will remain in place until Jan. 2, 2021.

Officials said due to the surge, hospitals in Delaware County are still diverting patients to other facilities. The surge is also leading to longer than normal wait times in emergency rooms.

This has led first responders and essential healthcare workers to be greatly impacted, affecting their ability to assist, care for and treat residents.

Additionally, the county's essential emergency service and healthcare workers are being strained, as there are fewer 911 operators to take the calls, fewer police, fire, and EMS to respond.

"We are going down a road we feared we may go down earlier this fall- higher numbers, more deaths, and overwhelming our health care systems and first responders," said Delaware County Council Chairman Brian Zidek.