Apr 21, 2020 3 min read

Fayette County’s COVID-19 case count grew by two, as Greene County’s number stayed steady, according to the state Department of Health’s daily update.

Fayette has 69 cases and Greene County has 25, the same number reported on Monday. Washington County’s number of cases rose from 83 to 86.

Statewide, there were 1,296 additional COVID-19 cases reported in Pennsylvania, bringing the total to 34,528.

Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine explained Tuesday that the 1,296 increase is broken down into 981 confirmed cases and 315 probable cases.

The latter is defined as “a person who has symptoms of COVID-19, and was a close contact or other otherwise linked to a confirmed case of COVID-19, but who did not have testing done,” she said.

Probable COVID-19 deaths started being added to the total number of reported deaths over the weekend, Levine said.

A confirmed COVID-19 death lists the virus as the cause or as a contributing cause of death on the person’s death certificate. A probable death from the virus means the person was not tested, but exhibited symptoms.

Of the 1,564 total deaths in the state, 1,264 are confirmed COVID-19 deaths, and 300 are probable deaths from the virus, Levine said.

“It’s important to remember that this increase did not happen overnight, but it is the culmination of our efforts to continue to bring to bring to the public, the most accurate data possible,” Levine said.

Three COVID-19 deaths have been reported in Fayette County, including one person who was a resident at a nursing home.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said Tuesday he secured a commitment from the Trump administration to publicly release the names of nursing homes where cases of COVID-19 have been detected.

On April 2, Casey and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, made the request to increase transparency.

“Once in place, this critical step will ensure that families have necessary information about their loved ones amid this public health crisis and help direct resources to facilities being ravaged by outbreaks,” the men said in a joint statement.

They are asking that the information be released quickly, and updated in real time.

Levine said the state would “strongly consider” releasing the names of nursing homes where the virus has been detected.

“We’ll have to figure out the right way to do that, so that we give the most information the public, but also protect patient privacy,” she said.

Earlier this month the state released the number of nursing homes in each county where cases have been detected, but cited privacy concerns in declining to identify the facilities.

In response to a question about whether the state is doing an adequate level of testing, Levine said Pennsylvania is in the top 10 in testing across the U.S.

“But,” she said, “we’re not where we want to be.”

Testing capacity still needs to be expanded, she said, to get more information about patients who have the virus.

“What’s challenging is that we need to be able to have the reagents and chemicals for the different aspects of the testing. It has been very challenging to get those, but we will continue to double our efforts to do that.”

According to the state numbers of negative and positive tests, about 1.3% of Pennsylvania’s population has been tested.

For more information on the coronavirus, visit health.pa.gov.