The increased number of COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania has some people wondering if counties will be moved back into the red and yellow phases. Those phases further limited what people could do in regards to dining and gatherings.
FOX43's Grace Griffaton spoke one-on-one with Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine. Dr. Levine said she does not believe those mitigation efforts are necessary right now.
"Our health care system is much better able to deal with cases of COVD-19. The medical care has improved significantly. The intensive care, etc. We have more therapeutics... We have no plan to implement, for example, the statewide mitigation efforts we did in the spring," said Dr. Levine.
Dr. Levine says there is also more medication available such as Remdesivir and Dexamethasone, which is an older steroid.
"There is widespread use of these medicines, but they're not preventative medicines," Dr. Levine said. "It wouldn't be given if you have a relatively mild course. If you are at home, maybe with a fever or a cough for a week or ten days, and you recover, you would not receive these medicines. These medicines would be given in the hospital. You'd have to be sick enough to be in the hospital. We don't wait until someone is very ill in intensive care. There is sort of a window, where physicians and internal medicine physicians, will be giving these medicines to prevent someone from becoming deathly ill."
What about the vaccine President Trump promises will help combat the virus soon?
"You can't put a timeline on science. It will be done when it's done, but we have heard very promising information about the development of vaccines. I think it is possible that the first vaccines will start to be distributed in 2020 in the end of November into December or, certainly, the beginning of 2021," stated Dr. Levine. "Our work starts when the vaccine is delivered to us in Pennsylvania."
Dr. Levine says officials must figure out how to distribute it.
"It will most likely come out in three phases. The first phase will be somewhat limited. We will be targeting all health care personnel in many different types of settings and vulnerable populations," she explained.
The health secretary says there will likely be a more robust phase two with much of the population, and finally, everyone by phase 3. She stated she does not know specifics of those timelines yet.
Dr. Levine says more rapid testing is also in the pipeline. She says all tests have their own accuracy, and officials must come up with the best ways to use different tests under different circumstances.
FOX43 also asked how hospitals are doing.
"They are okay, but we have seen a significant increase in hospitalizations. At the end of the summer, we were down to about 400 patients throughout Pennsylvania. We are approaching 1,200 now so it has tripled in the last month or so," explained Dr. Levine.
However, Pennsylvania is not where it was in the Spring. Dr. Levine says, at most, there were about 3,000 people in hospitals. The Health Secretary stressed it's important for people to take the virus seriously.
"I think many of us do know someone who have gotten sick with COVID-19, families who have lost family members," explained Dr. Levine. "We have been successful in containing, mitigating the spread in Pennsylvania, but if you look at other states, right now in Wisconsin, their hospitals are full. They have very high death rates so we can't let people become complacent -- just because they haven't been impacted so far doesn't mean they won't be in the future."
With a holiday weekend ahead, Secretary Levine is asking people to follow CDC guidelines.
