58 New Cases As Bucks Hopes For Downward COVID Trend

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Bucks County officials reported a modest 58 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday while pointing toward what they hope to be a downward trend in infections.

Dr. David Damsker, director of the Bucks County Department of Health, said the number of new cases has been declining in the county compared to recent weeks. He called the numbers a reflection of the county complying with social distancing measures.

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"If you look at the epidemiological curve, you see the numbers coming down, and we hope that what we are seeing is a trend," Damsker said during an online news conference on Thursday. "But because there are certain situations at long-term care facilities that are doing mass testing, we could see some numbers bumping up. But we do think the overall numbers of community-type spread cases – either household contacts or pure community spread – seem to be leveling off over the last week or two."

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Eleven new deaths from the coronavirus were reported in Bucks County on Thursday. Two of them date back to April and are just now being reported, officials said. Nine of the deaths were among people in long-term care facilities.

They ranged in age from 56 to 93 and all had underlying health conditions, officials said.

Among Thursday's new cases, 23 were residents of long-term care facilities, three were workers at those facilities, nine were spread through household contacts and six were healthcare workers. Three were infected at other jobs and just four were attributed to community spread, which is when the sick person doesn't know where they contracted the virus.

The county was unable to contact 11 of the new cases.

Also Thursday, commissioners said that county government buildings will re-open to the public Monday on an appointment-only basis. Employees and visitors will be required to wear masks and practice social distancing.

A total of 181 patients were hospitalized with the virus Thursday in Bucks County. Of those, 24 were in critical condition and on ventilators. Bucks has reported a total of 4,190 COVID-19 cases, with 1,162 of those patients 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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