Chester Co. Looks Toward Green Phase As Cases Drop By 11 Percent

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — Coronavirus case counts have plummeted in Chester County over the last two weeks, with the county seeing an 11 percent drop in total cases over that period of time.

There were 471 new cases in the county for the period of June 2 through June 15, the county said, for an average of 33 daily. That's significantly less than the 532 new cases reported in the two week period prior to that, from May 19 to June 1.

The overall decrease is despite a spike in the far southeastern parts of the county.

Chester County moved into the yellow phase on June 5 with the rest of southeastern Pennsylvania. However, county officials have not commented on an exact date for when they think they might move to green.

In nearby Montgomery County, officials suggested it could be very soon if their metrics hold over the next week. And in Bucks County, officials are reportedly targeting June 26.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health has established four metrics featuring requirements for counties to move the plan's next stage. The metrics include a positive rate of below 10 percent over the last 14 days. They also requires hospital bed use to be below 90 percent per district population, and for contact tracing to be in place. The state dashboard shows Chester County meeting all three of those metrics.

As of Wednesday morning, the state chart indicates that they still have not met the fourth metric: decreasing case counts over the last two weeks as compared to the previous two weeks. However, the county's most recent statistics show that they are clearly decreasing, indicating the county is ready to move to green.

Overall Chester County has seen 304 deaths and 3,387 positive cases of coronavirus, as of Wednesday. Of those confirmed cases, 59 percent have recovered, officials said.