Coronavirus PA: Montgomery County Officials Consider Returning Schools to All-Virtual Education

Students and parents in Montgomery County will receive an important decision regarding schools on Thursday.

The county office of public health decides to start two weeks of virtual school only from November 23 to December 6.

If they vote to do so, all K-12 schools in the county would go 100% virtual with the hope that blended learning would resume on December 6.

The decision will be made on the same day that Pennsylvania reported its largest daily increase in positive COVID-19 cases.

The Department of Health confirmed an additional 5,488 positive cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the total to 248,856 statewide.

The number of tests administered in the last 7 days between November 5 and November 11 is 331,492 with 25,702 positive cases. There were 50,997 test results reported to the department as of 10 p.m. Nov. 11. This is a record number of PCR test results reported to the department, officials said.

The department reported 49 new deaths. The total number of deaths in Pennsylvania attributed to COVID-19 stands at 9,194.

There are 7,189 people who have a positive viral antigen test and are considered probable cases and 645 people who have a positive serologic test and symptoms of COVID-19 or high risk exposure.

To date, 2,506,649 people have tested negative.

Among those who have tested positive to date, the age distribution is as follows:

– About 1% are aged 0 to 4;
– About 2% are between 5 and 12 years old;
– About 5% are between 13 and 18 years old;
– Almost 13% are between 19 and 24 years old;
– About 36% are between 25 and 49 years old;
– About 21% are between 50 and 64 years old; and

– About 20% are aged 65 or over.

There are 2,080 people hospitalized for COVID-19. Of that number, 438 patients are in the intensive care unit with COVID-19. Most hospital patients are 65 years of age or older, and most deaths have occurred in patients 65 years of age or older. More data is available here.

The department has seen a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 cases among younger age groups, particularly those 19 to 24.

In nursing and personal care homes, there are 28,142 resident cases of COVID-19 and 5,932 cases among employees, for a total of 34,077 in 1,126 separate facilities in 63 counties. Of the total deaths, 5,922 occurred in residents of nursing or personal care facilities.

About 13,202 of our total cases involve healthcare workers.

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