Wolf: COVID-19’s efforts fail and new restrictions are possible | News

December 7-Government. Tom Wolfe admitted on Monday that his administration’s recent attempts to curb the surge in COVID-19 cases have failed, highlighting the possibility of more stringent mitigation efforts in the near future.

A “significant” announcement was made after the state saw a record increase in cases and hospitalization over the weekend, begging Pennsylvania residents to follow basic health procedures by Wolff and the Supreme Health Authority. The influx of new incidents came after Wolf issued new restrictions, including schools, on November 23.

In York County alone, new cases are showing record increases every day. On Saturday, the county once again broke the record of increased cases with 792 new cases set just a few days ago.

“These things didn’t work, as the numbers show,” Wolff said of his restrictions on business and school. “We keep looking at the numbers, and if we have to do more, we do.”

The Wolf administration “will make a decision soon,” he added.

Hospital Burden: Wolves’ concerns are primarily focused on the increasing number of cases burdening hospitals throughout the state, he said. Problems that health officials expect to worsen as the flu season progresses.

Throughout the state, there were 5,300 individuals hospitalized for COVID-19 at noon on Monday, of which 1,107 were in the COVID-19 intensive care unit.

In York County, 202 people were hospitalized. There were no pediatric ICU beds available and the ventilator capacity was less than half.

Hospitalization and ventilator use increased last month, but the availability of beds such as adult ICU beds and surgical and medical beds has changed.

On Thursday, due to increased hospitalizations, WellSpan Health began relocating staff, limiting elective surgery, and creating emergency units due to staff shortages.

In a statement from the York Hospital operator, authorities said the health system would move staff from the Apple Hill Surgery Center in Yorktownship to a remodeled emergency hospital at the Wellspan Surgical Rehabilitation Hospital, also in Yorktownship. Stated.

“It’s time to slow the spread of the virus, before it overwhelms healthcare heroes and fails to fulfill their mission to the community,” WellSpan Health’s top officials later posted on The York. Dispatch written in the editorial.

Restrictions: On November 23, Wolf introduced new restrictions on meetings and required schools to prove that they comply with safety guidelines if they continue to teach directly.

The restrictions were less stringent than what he enforced in March and included a business suspension order that caused a great deal of opposition from Republicans and businesses.

The updated limits did not put an end to the surge in incidents that only worsened in the last two weeks across York County and the state.

Over the past 14 days, York County has seen an average of 940 cases per 100,000 people. This is a general indicator for comparing cases between municipalities. In the last 7 days alone, there were 2,765 new cases.

Between November 27th and December 3rd, the infection rate in York County was 14.8%, an increase of 2.7 points from the previous 7 days. Local figures are 0.4 points above the state-wide average of 14.4%.

In December, the county recorded an average of 395 new cases per day, a record high.

Postal code data provided by the State Department of Health shows that the most concentrated cases occurred in York City and its neighboring municipalities.

In York City alone, there were 1,482 cases and 17 virus-related deaths as of Monday. The hospitalization rate was 13.8%.

However, the outlier of that trend was Hanover, with 1,353 cases, especially with the 17331 ZIP Code.

“Unfortunately, don’t visit too many people right now,” York Mayor Michael Helffrich said in a Facebook video on Monday. “It doesn’t look like it’s gone soon.”

As of Monday, there have been 13,967 cases of COVID-19 and 263 virus-related deaths in York County since the outbreak began. There were 426,444 cases and 11,373 deaths across the state.

— Logan Haringer can be reached at [email protected] Or via @LoganHullYD on Twitter.

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