Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine
A November 23 order by Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine imposes new limits on the number of people who can gather indoors, due to what the order called a “serious increase” of COVID-19 cases in Delaware County. The order is in effect through January 2.
Among the new restrictions is a limit on the number of diners who can share a table (four) as well on people attending indoor “gatherings,” which include parties, funerals, and sporting events (ten). Religious services and school instruction are not affected.
Strath Haven High School Athletic Director Pat Clancy sent an email to the school community announcing that winter sports are now “postponed until further notice.”
SHHS Athletic Director Pat Clancy
Last week, after extended discussion, the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District school board had voted to permit winter sports to go forward with certain precautions. Levine’s order nullifies that decision. The board had also voted to require athletes to attend school virtually if sports practices and games would bring them within 6 feet of each other, but, with the postponement, students hoping to play winter sports may continue with hybrid instruction for now.
November 26 data from the Chester County Health Department shows a COVID-19 incidence rate of 276 per 100,000 Delaware County residents between November 20-26, with a positivity rate of 10.26%. The incidence rate in the school district during that time was 155 per 100,000 (the county does not report positivity rates for individual school districts). The health department charts four categories of incidence rate: “very low” for fewer than 10 cases per 100,000 residents; “low” for 10 to 40 cases, “high” for 40 to 80, and “very high” above 80.
