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2 presumed cases of COVID-19 identified in Pennsylvania

  • Staff
  • The Associated Press

 Audrey McAvoy / AP Photo

(Harrisburg) — State officials say two patients in the commonwealth are presumed to have COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus: one in Delaware County and one in Wayne County. The state’s positive test results still need to be confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We have two individuals with presumed positive cases of COVID-19,” Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said. “They are both at home, they are in isolation or quarantine, and at the same time, they are in good physical condition.”

Officials would not disclose additional details about the patients, citing confidentiality, but did say these cases involved travel. One patient was in contact with an individual in another state confirmed to have COVID-19. The other was traveling extensively overseas, including to level 3 travel warning countries.

Officials will be reaching out to individuals who may have been in contact with the two patients, and those people will be quarantined.

A state laboratory was set up earlier this week and has been able to run 20 to 25 tests per day. By the weekend, officials say a new piece of equipment will be able to increase testing capacity to 125 to 150 samples each day.

Gov. Tom Wolf plans to sign a disaster declaration. Pennsylvania does not have a process for declaring public health emergencies, as other states and counties have done in response to the novel coronavirus.

Meanwhile, classes were canceled at five schools in Bucks County because some members of its school community were exposed to a confirmed case of the new coronavirus. Central Bucks School District Superintendent John Kopicki said the decision to close the schools was made “out of an abundance of caution” after consultations with state and local health officials. Levine said the situation in Bucks County is not related to the presumed positive cases in Delaware and Wayne counties.

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