Pennsylvania records one of highest single day COVID-19 totals since pandemic began

[TomCADem]

Source: WPXI

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s Department of Heath reported over 2,000 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, which is the one of the highest single day totals since the pandemic began.

The 2,063 new cases includes a faulty data file sent to the system by a laboratory early this week, which prevented some of the lab results from being properly reported, the Department of Health reported. The statewide total cases stands at 188,360.

Pennsylvania is also reporting 30 additional deaths across the state. To date, there has been a total of 8,592 deaths.

There were 133 new COVID-19 cases and one new death reported Thursday in Allegheny County.

Read more: https://www.wpxi.com/news/top-stories/133-new-covid-19-cases-1-death-reported-thursday-allegheny-county/YZGNQWLNBFFONDNX4KIQWK2EEY/

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What states has Trump been holding mass rallies in since Labor Day? Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. What are the States that have been experiencing a surge in cases and positivity rates since Labor Day? Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/live-blog/first-presidential-debate-trump-biden-n1241282/ncrd1241476#blogHeader

Fact-check: Trump says 'no negative effects' from his rallies, ignoring Covid-19 cases

Trump said "we've had no negative effect" from the coronavirus at his rallies, a claim that ignores the spate of Covid-19 cases that have been linked to the campaign events.

A handful of Trump's own campaign staff members tested positive for Covid-19 in the days surrounding his late-June rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, including members of the Secret Service. Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain tested positive days after the rally and ultimately died because of complications from the virus. While Cain attended the rally and was photographed without a mask on, it's unclear where he contracted the virus.

Tulsa's top health official said the rally "likely contributed" to a surge in cases after the rally.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

1. PA is over 10% positive test rate now.

That's about double Ohio's rate, currently.

PA is only testing about one third as much of their population, though, so their new cases per 100,000 have been artificially low.

[bbernardini]

2. Yet the School District of Philadelphia plans to send all pre-K through 2 students...

...and all the adults to go along with them (teachers, specialists, etc.) back to school on November 30.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

3. How is Philly doing?

I tried to find a map of current infection hotspots for PA, not just the totals to-date, but gave up after a few minutes on Google.

CovidActNow doesn't have the Philly area in red right now, but I don't trust that site to be current.

It wouldn't surprise me if officials back down from those plans later! New cases are growing pretty much everywhere in the country now.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Our local site from the city health department that tracks it here is this --

https://www.phila.gov/programs/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/

We are having a concerning increase, having gone from around 60 cases per day, to ~230 per day (with days where we'll see sudden large "batches" of results from late-reporting labs appearing in a particular single day's total, that should have normally been tallied in the count for earlier days).

So yesterday, it was reported that we had +230 -

Link to tweet

TEXT

Philadelphia Public Health
@PHLPublicHealth
Oct 22, 2020 @PhiladelphiaGov COVID-19 update:

230 new cases
41,167 total cases
8 new probable cases from rapid tests

1 new death
1,852 total deaths

For more info: https://buff.ly/2IN3q61
Image
1:05 PM · Oct 22, 2020

and they usually report it out by 1:30 pm ET M - F and report a 3-day total on Mondays to cover Friday post-1:30 pm results and the weekend's results.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Not if the School Board, teachers and others have their way in the management of that

School board gets details on Philly reopening, earful from public
by Kristen A. Graham, Updated: October 22, 2020- 10:17 PM


With the Philadelphia School District gearing up for a late November return to in-person learning for some students, the school board heard details Thursday about building readiness — and got an earful about the proposed reopening plan. Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said that school buildings were on track to be able to accommodate up to 32,000 prekindergarten through second-grade students two days a week beginning Nov. 30. But less than half of district schools have had ventilation capacity checked to date, and of those, 25 buildings currently have ventilation systems that would render them nonoperational.

In some cases, the district will bring in fans to circulate air to bolster ventilation systems. School staff may need to unplug refrigerators and coffee pots, officials said, to accommodate the equipment that could be needed to keep adequate air flow in buildings where electrical power is an issue.

With a stock of old buildings and a shaky history of building maintenance, the school system has a daunting job getting buildings ready, officials said. But the district “will not be opening any schools for in-person learning unless we’re confident that every health and safety condition has been met," school board president Joyce Wilkerson said. Some parents, teachers, and members of the public were skeptical.

Emily Seiter, the school nurse at McClure Elementary in North Philadelphia, is alarmed by the notion that the district is banking on opening windows and using window fans as forms of ventilation. “This plan will cause COVID to spread in our schools,” Seiter told the board. “Dismissing this reality, by saying ‘naturally there will be cases’ is unacceptable, because when we’re talking about COVID, cases equal deaths. Maybe not as many students, but certainly parents, and grandparents, and staff. Their lives matter, too.”

https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-school-district-reopening-plan-board-20201022.html

One of the issues (that I agree with) is that the youngest students are still developing habits associated with our society's focus on specific "schedules" and "group learning". They normally have shorter attention spans and all-virtual for 6 hours a day is literally impossible given that even that age group also won't sit in front of a TV all day (as much as people claim they do). The last I heard, they acknowledged that and have started limiting the "screen time" to where the "school day" is running from 9 - 1 pm (including a lunch).

However the situation here is that you have a Superintendent who is NOT from this city, but comes from the toney Prince George's County, MD., which has about 60% of the population of Philadelphia, and is basically a bedroom county to D.C., populated with suburban towns that generally have "newer" school buildings. Meanwhile this city still utilizes school buildings (making up probably 1/2 of the total stock of schools) that were built before and around the Roosevelt WPA era, with a bunch listed on the National Historic Register.

I.e., there were a pile of what I call "1920s-era buildings" that are still in use. I know I went to school in 3 such buildings, built between 1922 - 1933, after which I finally attended high school in a building that was a "young" 20 years old when I went there (and is now 60+ years old. Contrast this with one of my nieces in a rim county of Philly, where her township built a new elementary school 10 years ago to supplement their older one (that appears to have been built in the '50s), and just completed a brand new middle school to supplement their current middle school (also a building of recent construction). Meanwhile the city finally replaced the 1912-built West Philly High 8 years ago. And you still have kids in schools built in 1914. I know old cities like NYC have similar issues with all their "PS-xx" schools built who knows how long ago.

There is also the obvious fact that a large percentage of parents of that age group of children, are ones who cannot "work from home", and in the interim with the school district on "all-virtual", the city set up "access centers" for those children (in libraries, larger rec centers, etc) so that they can do their "online/remote" learning there while their parents work and the kids are basically kept in their own "pods" in those settings.

So this whole pandemic has been an extra nightmare, particularly when you have millions nationwide determined to prolong the agony.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

9. Thanks for posting that!

I doubt they'll reopen as planned given the spikes in new cases.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. What I don't understand in situations like this

is why no one is at least ratcheting up attempts to test some "commercial grade" or high-end "consumer grade" air purifiers with some more expensive HEPA filters in them. Hell, I have had 2 (large room capacity) HEPA air purifiers for the past 5 years that I literally run 24/7 and change out both the pre- and HEPA filters on a schedule (checking them periodically in the interim in case they might need an earlier replacement).

I can see putting one of those "large volume" ("high CADR" ) ones in each classroom, where that could supplement the masks, plexiglass, and social distancing, and it should go a long way towards mitigating any issues "in the classroom" in those old piece of junk buildings themselves - at least capturing any larger droplets that might escape a mask but are not yet aerosolized (where the aerosolized droplets might pass through that type of filter).

Once these types of things are in place, what happens outside of the classroom tends to be more of the issue.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

11. I agree, they should be used whenever possible!

There was a recent review of wearing masks on planes, and the data shows that they're extremely helpful at preventing transmission on flights. However, that's because the planes are rapidly recirculating and filtering the air. Without that, the air would surely become like a swamp of infectious stray aerosols.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/10/20/925892185/do-masks-really-cut-your-risk-of-catching-covid-19-on-long-plane-flights

[BumRushDaShow]

12. I did see a similar article about that

because the big concern with air travel was that you would have dozens and dozens cooped up in what amounts to a small enclosed area and apparently there have been no reports of any outbreaks on planes, thanks to airlines paying more attention to the maintenance of plane air-filtration systems. The bigger issue is probably public transit because those vehicles really don't have adequate air filtration.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

13. That would be my guess too.

So many places won't filter the air like an airliner. I'd be skeptical of a business or school being honest about it too, unless they had professional regulators who confirmed it periodically. (That's the kind of action that I'd anticipate from a Biden administration, but certainly not the jokers in power now.)

[ebbie15644]

4. I'm in Westmoreland county

And we have a really high count.

[EarthFirst]

5. A lot of anglers from Pennsylvania are coming up to New York regularly right now...

With salmon & steelhead season upon us; there are dozens of vehicles from Ohio and Pennsylvania at every major tributary to Lake Erie or Ontario on an given day.

On weekends; you’ll see them from as far away as West Virginia.

It’s a big thing up here...

No masks; no social distancing protocols. Just dozens and dozens of guys shoulder to shoulder for eight to ten hours a day.

I’m not participating this year; I’m waiting until the crowds thin in mid to late November and fishing smaller inland fisheries solo...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. Hooray! A new record!

Oh, wait. That's not actually a good think is it?

Never mind.