Bucks Co. 'Ready To Move To Yellow,' Health Director Believes

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Bucks County's health director on Wednesday declared the county ready to move to a less restrictive phase of Pennsylvania's coronavirus plan.

After a two-day spike in coronavirus cases, Bucks County saw a dip in the number of newly reported cases on Wednesday. The Bucks County Health Department announced 44 new positive cases of COVID-19. That's after reporting 81 new cases on Monday and 67 on Tuesday.

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At 44, Bucks County's new-case total still remained roughly twice what would be required, on average, over a two-week period to qualify for reopening under Gov. Tom Wolf's statewide plan. But Bucks officials on Wednesday declared themselves ready to move forward anyway.

"Based on our extensive data collection, I believe that Bucks County is ready to move to the yellow phase," said Dr. David Damsker, director of the health department. "We hope that Gov. Wolf and Health Secretary Levine also see it the same way very soon."

Bucks County's new-case count over the past 14 days has averaged 71 cases per day. But officials say that when using the onset date, which they call more accurate, the 14-day average is 43 cases per day.

The color-coded 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.

Six deaths of people with the coronavirus were announced on Wednesday. They were a 102-year-old woman and five men ranging in age from 79-89, officials said. All were residents of long-term care facilities and had underlying health conditions.

Eighteen of Wednesday’s new cases were among residents of long-term care facilities, nine were from household contacts, four were deemed pure community spread and two were healthcare workers, officials said. Eleven were unable to be fully interviewed today.

Bucks County has continued working to trace the source of every new coronavirus case — an effort that has been abandoned by most local governments. That, and the heavy concentration of cases in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, has been at the heart of officials' argument that the county is ready to begin reopening.

Political leaders from Bucks have met with Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine and members of Wolf's staff, asking for some leniency on the reopening standards.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, there have been 4,486 cases in Bucks County and 405 deaths. A total of 126 patients remained hospitalized on Wednesday, with 22 of them in critical condition and on ventilators.

As of Wednesday, 1,366 people in Bucks County have been confirmed to have recovered from the virus.

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

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