No new COVID-19 cases reported in Clinton
Health secretary explains 200 plus spike in virus deaths
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No new cases were reported in Clinton County Sunday afternoon, keeping the total to 11 cases, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported.
Centre County reported its first death from the virus on Friday. The county still has 73 positives and 588 negatives.
No deaths are reported in Lycoming County which still has a total of 36 positive cases and 723 negative.
One death was reported in nearby Tioga County, with a total of 14 cases within the area and 166 negatives.
Throughout the Commonwealth, 1,215 additional cases were reported bumping the total up to 32,284 cases, the department reported.
Deaths increased exponentially by over 200 with the total now at 1,112. Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine held a press briefing to explain the large jump in numbers.
“These deaths did not happen over night. They did not all occur in the last 24 hours,” Levine said.
Levine explained the department is using multiple data sources to gather information related to the coronavirus each day.
“As I mentioned previously we’re working to reconcile our data with information from several different sources. This includes our NEDs data reporting system. But also our electronic data reporting system and our county municipal health departments,” she said. “We understand how important accurate data is to make informed decisions about our path forward for this global pandemic. As we collect data we are also verifying its accuracy.”
She continued saying that some deaths that are reported have several causes listed, with COVID-19 being one of them.
“Some deaths are reported to us with several causes of death with COVID-19 listed as maybe the fourth or fifth cause of death. Our epidemiologists then investigate whether that person had tested positive for COVID-19,” she said. “This work takes time and so today the increase in deaths is a culmination of that data validating effort.”
All of the deaths reported since March 6 were adults, Levine said.
“We want to provide you with the most accurate information possible. That will mean at times there will be a single days report that will show big increases. Like today. It’s important to remember that we’re looking at trends in the data to base our decisions and to confirm that social distancing and the mitigation efforts ordered by the governor are working,” she continued.
According to Levine, the trends show that the mitigation efforts are working.
126,570 people have tested negative to the virus.
Other counties surrounding Clinton continue to report one or more cases.
One case is reported in Cameron with 19 testing negative; four cases were reported in Potter with 50 testing negative; Clearfield County has nine cases with 314 testing negative and Union remains at 27 cases with 401 testing negative.