MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania's Health secretary said she thinks the state is in the beginnings of the predicted "fall resurgence" of COVID-19. But there are no plans to change the current guidelines.
Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine pointed to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases and an increase in hospitalization rates.
She said while an increase in testing means an increase in cases, she noted the positivity rate, the percentage of tests that are coming back positive, is also climbing.
"We're not past that 5% level that we have talked about before, but we have seen increases in our percent positivity," she said.
Levine said there are no plans to increase restrictions, but it's impossible to predict the future. The hospitalization rate across the state — while climbing — is significantly lower than in late spring, when they had to issue shutdown orders.
As for testing, the department said they've started handing out antigen test kits from the federal government in hopes of being able to identify and limit spread. Those kits are going to Bradford, Centre, Lebanon, Montour, Northumberland, Schuylkill and Snyder counties in northwest and central Pennsylvania, that the department said are currently seeing the highest incident rates.
New cases in Bucks County held steady last week, and while case numbers have gone up slightly in Montgomery County, the positivity rate remains just over 2%.
