YORK, Pa. — Lancaster County is averaging about 1,000 to 1,100 COVID-19 cases per day, according to a local health expert.
“I would anticipate that it’s going up slightly, although I have seen some leveling off in the last two or three days and we’ll see if that’s just a factor of people not getting tested or we’re seeing potential leveling off," said Dr. Michael Ripchinski with Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health.
Ripchinski says the hospital has 233 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, 34 in the ICU and 20 on ventilators.
“Definitely highest lines we’ve seen at LGH as well," said Ripchinski.
Pediatric hospitalizations have also increased in recent months, he says.
“Not a huge increase in hospitalizations in terms of net volume, but I will say we’ve probably seen here at LGH more than half of our pediatric clients since the beginning of the pandemic starting maybe in August or September through right now," said Ripchinski. "So (there's) definitely more volume in the recent months for hospitalizations."
Compared to where we were last summer, COVID-19 deaths have also been trending upwards, he added.
“It’s challenging," he said. "I think it definitely is taking a toll on our team."
COVID-19 testing has also been in demand in recent months and Lancaster General Health is working with the County as well as four health systems across the region to bring together a public testing site to try to meet that demand.
“This isn’t a panacea," said Ripchinski. "This isn’t a number all encompassing site for the county. we have many options right now for testing, whether it’d be at the health systems, hospitals, labs, primary care physicians’ office, urgent care offices. So, this is a supplement to what we currently have across the community."
COVID-19 testing begins Friday at the Lancaster County public safety training center and appointments are required .
Appointments can be scheduled through the MyLGHealth app or by calling LG Health Centralized Scheduling at 717-544-5941.