78 More Die In PA As U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Passes Italy

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania reported 1,676 additional positive coronavirus cases Saturday, bringing the statewide total to 21,655.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health also reported 78 new deaths among positive cases, bringing the statewide total to 494. Philadelphia has the highest number of deaths of any Pennsylvania county, with 130 as of Saturday. A county breakdown is here.

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The news comes as Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday said he believes the state will experience a possible surge of cases next week.

"If the surge occurs next week, as we suspect it will, and it's within the range of the capacity of our health care system, that's going to allow us to shut this shutdown down fast, faster than if this drags on," Wolf said during a Friday media briefing via telephone.

As of Saturday morning, 617 of the nearly 2,200 Pennsylvania residents hospitalized due to COVID-19 infections are on ventilators. Of the state's 4,907 ventilators, 1,465 are in use by both COVID and non-COVID patients, the state's hospital preparedness database shows.

According to Johns Hopkins, the United States' coronavirus death toll jumped to 19,700 Saturday, officially pushing the number of dead in the United States higher than Italy. The United States now has the most coronavirus fatalities of any country in the world.

In New York alone, more than 8,600 people have died. As the virus continues to wreak havoc on the U.S. economy, the White House said next week it will launch a new task force to determine when to safely reopen the country.

>>>Full coverage of coronavirus in Pennsylvania