Friday marked the largest spike in COVID-19 cases in Bucks County.
County health officials said there were 43 additional positive cases reported on the last day of the workweek.
The large spike in single-day results was attributed to a backlog of results coming in, Dr. David Damsker, the county health department director, said.
“It doubles our largest increase to date,” Damsker said.
As of Friday night, the county had 181 COVID-19 cases. Earlier in the day, Damsker noted that number was likely much higher.
Numerous private COVID-19 testing sites have opened in Bucks County and several hundred people per day have been tested, county officials said.
In a late Friday night news release, the county said 15 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals. Six of them in critical condition on ventilators.
Damsker said he was encouraged that community spread would begin dropping in the coming days.
“Soon, if not this weekend then early next week … we should not be seeing community spread if everyone is staying in their homes. We shouldn’t be seeing cases where we can’t identify the source,” Damsker said.
The majority of the new cases were due to contacts with others who had confirmed cases, Damsker said. Other cases were people who had flown recently, been in New York, or worked as a first responder or in health care.
“Long story short, we had a large influx from some of the large testing sites,” Damsker said.
