Pa. coronavirus update: 970 new cases put state at 112K; Wolf won’t close schools; Lehigh Valley goes 5th day - lehighvalleylive.com

Pennsylvania coronavirus cases increased by 970 on Friday to a total case count of 112,048.

The 970 new cases in the daily report by the Pennsylvania Department of Health have pushed the statewide total to 112,048.

Of those, the health department said, 30 were from tests taken more than two weeks ago and 77 are from residents and staff of long-term care facilities.

The health department estimates that 75% of infected Pennsylvanians have so far recovered.

The statewide case rate has been rising since June but has slowed its ascent in the last two days.

The World Health Organization recommends a rate of 5% or less when considering economic reopening.

The Pennsylvania health department’s “early warning system,” an online dashboard updated every Friday, lists 12 counties above that threshold, including some Philadelphia suburbs and Reading’s Berks County:.

The state measures positivity based on total tests, putting Pennsylvania’s statewide rate at 4.6% in the last seven days.

The rate of COVID-19 deaths in Pennsylvania is about 13 a day over the last week.

Both counties have seen increases in new confirmed cases and state-calculated positivity rates in the last week.

Lehigh had 106 new cases last week and 176 this week, with the positivity rate jumping from 3% to 4%.

Northampton, where a new testing center was recently set up, went from 88 new confirmed cases the previous week to 123 this week, and the positivity rate went from 2.8% to 3.4%.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Friday said the state will hire 1,000 more contact tracers to help identify and notify people who may have been exposed to COVID-19.