As local schools and organizations take precautions against the potential spread of the coronavirus, Pennsylvania health officials are also actively monitoring any developments.
Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine announced that Pennsylvania now can test potential cases in the state public health laboratory in Exton and has increased its capacity to test approximately 25 specimens a day.
“The ability to test for potential cases of COVID-19 at our state lab allows us to better protect Pennsylvanians,” said Dr. Levine. “This is a very important step for us as we continue to work to provide timely updates. This testing now will allow us to receive results more quickly rather than waiting for the samples to be shipped to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To date, there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania.”
Levine also said that since there are no confirmed cases, the individual risk for any person is quite low.
“But this is a rapidly developing situation as we’ve seen in other states,” Levine said.
Levine says right now the flu actually presents more dangers to Keystone State residents.
“We have over 100,000 flu cases in Pennsylvania, and tragically we’ve had 74 deaths, so we are still seeing active flu in Pennsylvania” Levine said. “Someone’s risk of getting ill is greater from the flu than from the novel coronavirus.”
Levine did say she wouldn’t be surprised if someone in Pennsylvania eventually tests positive for the coronavirus.
