Delayed reporting is inflating Bucks County’s new COVID-19 case numbers, according to the health department.
While Bucks County reported 24 new infections on Thursday, the total number will be 44, as 20 cases from early April that are not considered active infections anymore were reported to the health department.
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“This is a perfect example of the problems of not using the date of symptom onset for reporting,” Bucks County Health Department Director Dr. David Damsker said.
The county has advocated with the state that the symptom onset date should be used rather than total cases reported.
“For many of our cases that we reported today, the person was actually sick in early April,” Damsker said. “It makes little sense to use today’s date for any analytical purposes, and it isn’t good epidemiology.”
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Damsker told reporters Thursday that COVID-19 cases have dropped, but the area may have hit a “baseline.”
Of the 24 new infections reported Thursday, six were residents or workers at long-term care facilities, eight caught the virus through household contacts, three were due to community spread, one caught the virus through a health care setting, and one person was infected at work. Five people were unable to be reached by contact tracers.
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On Thursday, three deaths were reported. Two women in their 90s and one woman in her late 40s passed away. All were residents of long-term care facilities and had underlying health conditions.
As of Thursday night, 86 Bucks Countians were in hospitals and 16 in critical condition on ventilators.
Since the pandemic began, Bucks County has seen 5,091 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 484 deaths, and 2,202 recoveries.
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