51 New Coronavirus Cases As Bucks Hopes To Reopen

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — A day before Gov. Tom Wolf is expected to ease coronavirus restrictions in more Pennsylvania counties, Bucks County reported 51 new cases of the virus and six more deaths.

The 51 new cases come after days when Bucks County reported 81, 67 and 44 new coronavirus cases, respectively. Those numbers are higher than the standard for reopening set in Wolf's plan.

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But Bucks officials remained hopeful that the work they've done containing and tracing the virus would be factored into the governor's decision.

"I know I'm still praying for yellow coming tomorrow," said Bucks County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Diane Ellis-Marseglia at an online news conference Thursday.

The leading cause of the cases reported on Thursday was household contact, according to the Bucks County Department of Health. That accounted for 16 cases, while 15 were at long-term care facilities, four were healthcare workers, two were long-term care employees and three were attributed to pure community spread, meaning the sick person doesn't know how it happened.

Twelve people were unable to be contacted by county health workers.

Of the six reported deaths, one happened in April and another was two weeks ago, officials said. All involved people with underlying health conditions ranging in age from 74 to 96, they said.

All but one of the people lived in a long-term care facility.

The reopening plan set forth by Wolf requires that an area have fewer than 50 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people over the course of 14 days. In Bucks County, that would require an average of about 22 new cases per day.

As of Thursday, 49 Pennsylvania counties had been moved to the yellow phase under Wolf's color-coded reopening plan, while 18, including Bucks, remained in the red phase. Wolf said Thursday that some counties may move to the even more open green phase soon.

On Thursday, 126 people were hospitalized with the coronavirus in Bucks County, with 23 of them in critical condition and on ventilators.

Since the outbreak began, Bucks County has had 4,536 residents confirmed to be infected with COVID-19, 411 of whom have died and 1,366 of whom are confirmed to have recovered.

Statistics, charts and other coronavirus-related information for Bucks County can be found on the county's coronavirus data portal.

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