During a Saturday afternoon press conference, Secretary of Health, Dr. Rachel Levine answered questions, several of which were posed by News Talk 104.1.
As the coronavirus pandemic has unfolded one of the key answers to a vaccine and treatments of the virus is antibodies developed in recovered cases of COVID-19.
Pennsylvania to date has yet to begin tracking recovered cases. Many other states have a robust tracking program in place.
On Saturday, News Talk 104.1 sought answers on the lack of recovered COVID-19 case tracking.
Question: What is the biggest obstacle for the Department of Health to being tracking recovered cases of COVID-19?
Question: Is it a staffing issue, funding?
Maggi Mumma from the PA Department of Health Press Office offered this response on Saturday:
As we have shared previously, recovered individuals is not something being reported to the department by hospitals. In the midst of the many facets of the work that our hospitals are doing, reporting recoveries is not one of them at this time.
We will be working to determine how we can receive that data in the future, especially as we start to see antibody testing become more prevalent.
We do have all our current hospitalization data available on the website here: https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Hospital-Data.aspx
News Talk 104.1 & 1600 WEJS has repeatedly asked these types of questions of Secretary Levine since the onset of the pandemic.
April 23
EXCLUSIVE: Sec. Levine responds to News Talk 104.1 on obstacles to tracking recovered COVID-19 cases and masks
April 19
UPDATE: Sec. Levine updates recovered case reporting, masks and reopening PA
April 18
EXCLUSIVE: Sec. Levine adds clarity to economic modeling tool and recovered case data
April 13
Sec. Levine responds to News Talk 104.1 on COVID-19 recovered recurrence
April 10
Sec. Levine responds to News Talk 104.1 on recovered cases
Stay tuned to News Talk 104.1 & 1600 WEJS and talkwilliamsport.com for developments on this story.
