Rise in new Bucks County covid-19 cases continues to slow

The number of new coronavirus cases in Bucks County continues to show signs of flattening out, even as the death toll from coronavirus remains on a steady rise.

Three more deaths among people with covid-19 were reported Monday: a 63-year-old man, a 78-year-old woman and an 86-year-old woman, pushing the county’s total dead to 41.

New cases continued to moderate, however, with 46 positive tests for the virus reported today for a countywide total of 1,273. Of those, 264 people have been released from isolation after their recovery from the virus was confirmed.

Among the new cases were four inmates at the Bucks County Correctional Facility, all of whom had already been isolated. As a precaution, prison officials have imposed a 72-hour lockdown within the prison to prevent or minimize spread of covid-19 there, said Dr. David Damsker, director of the Bucks County Health Department.

A total of 101 Bucks County coronavirus patients remain in the hospital, 26 of whom are in critical condition and on ventilators. Damsker said the virus continues to take the greatest toll on the elderly and frail, noting that 80 is the average age of those who have died in Bucks County with covid-19.

The state Department of Health said that 55 percent of Pennsylvania’s hospital beds, 60 percent of its intensive care unit beds and 70 percent of its ventilators remain available, but Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine continued to warn against talk of lifting Gov. Wolf’s stay-at-home orders soon.

“Social distancing works and the closures are saving lives in Pennsylvania,” Levine said. “To do any kind of mass opening now would be a big mistake.”