Out-Of-State Travel Causes Bucks Co. COVID Bump

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Bucks County health officials are warning residents after eight people tested positive for the coronavirus after traveling out of state.

Bucks County reported 28 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, one of which was an old case just now reported to the county. Of the 27 new ones, eight infections are believed to have happened in other states, officials said.

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"Multiple cases today were infected due to out-of-state travel," said Bucks County Health Department Director Dr. David Damsker. "Unlike much of the pandemic, where Southeastern Pennsylvania was a hot spot, Bucks County now has fewer cases than many of the places people are traveling to. Please continue practicing caution when leaving the area."

Coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania have dropped dramatically since Gov. Tom Wolf in March instituted a statewide stay-at-home order that closed many businesses and other public spaces to help curb the spread of the virus.

Bucks County is scheduled to be among the state's final counties to move to the plan's most lenient green stage on Friday. Meanwhile, the number of new cases per day in the United States has shown no signs of dropping and, in fact, has spiked in some states that eased coronavirus restrictions early.

The following is a chart from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Out-of-state cases are a concern throughout the region. On Wednesday, the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced "a joint travel advisory" for people coming in from states with a high infection rate.

Travelers from those states "must quarantine for 14 days" under the advisory goes into effect at midnight.

As of Wednesday the states whose travelers are subjected to quarantine were Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington.

In Bucks County, Damsker did not say which states the people who got sick had visited.

One new death in Bucks County also was attributed to the coronavirus on Wednesday. A 62-year-old man who had underlying health conditions died with the virus, the health department reported.

That brought the death toll from the pandemic to 504 in Bucks County. Of those, 404 have been people living in nursing homes or other long-term care facilities.

Bucks County's total confirmed cases of the virus is at 5,311. Of those, 3,333 patients already have been confirmed to have recovered.

Seventy-seven patients remained hospitalized on Wednesday in Bucks, with 11 of them in critical condition and on ventilators.

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