Bucks County’s top health official believes community spread of COVID-19 has come to the county.
The news came during a Thursday afternoon press conference at the Bucks County Emergency Operations Center in Ivyland Borough.
Dr. David Damsker, the county health director, said the county had only moments previous confirmed a child had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and an adult also had a confirmed case.
Both of the new patients were at home.
The pediatric case marks the first in the county.
“We have a lot more investigating and contact tracing to come in that case,” Damsker said.
With the new cases, Bucks County had a total of 14 positive COVID-19 cases.
Of the possible community spread, Damsker said investigation continues, but there are the “first indications of some community spread.”
“If we already have two cases where we’re not sure where it came from, we’re going to see more cases,” Damker said, adding increases in testing will lead to more confirmed positives.
In neighboring Montgomery County, officials have stated they believe there is community spread happening. State health officials have said they believe there is community spread in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said new cases of COVID-19 are spreading quickly in the Philadelphia area, suggesting “community spread is already happening.”
“Stay home, stay calm, and stay safe,” Levine said, warning a massive outbreak could overrun the health system and cause many deaths.
“We have a real chance to slow the spread of this virus,” she said.
Damsker told the public to wash their hands, stay away from others if you are sick, and not to gather in large groups. He added that people with symptoms of illness are at high risk to spread it to others.
The doctor said the efforts of the social distancing won’t likely make an impact on confirmed cases until new week. He said the current cases were most likely spread before the mitigation efforts were in place.
“If you follow social distancing the majority of the time, it’s going to be effective,” he said.
County officials have not released the location of any of the COVID-19 cases, but said they may begin doing so as community spread happens.
Across the state, there were 185 confirmed cases as of noon on Thursday, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
(Data on the below map is from the state and there could be a delay with the data from Bucks County appearing.)
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