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In reply to the discussion: All K-12 schools in Pennsylvania shut down for 2 weeks amid coronavirus outbreak [View all]BumRushDaShow
(128,527 posts)We are literally at the embryonic stage of this. When I watched the State Health Director's report today (which was echoed by the Montgomery County Commissioner) - they are now assuming there is community spread and will cease doing any contact tracing. That means "officially" in the next phase which is mitigation.
I think the issue that they are trying to emphasize with this vs flu is that this is more contagious than the flu (they even mentioned that it is as bad as measles) and when it hits someone who is vulnerable to its effects, it is far more lethal than the various flus.
Due to the lack of test kits and medical personnel/infrastructure, yes they are actively triaging and selecting based on various criteria because of those shortcomings (and I have read that there are various municipalities including Philly, putting out a call for volunteers who have medical/nursing backgrounds). They also mentioned that the reports that come out today are based on tests that were done 4 - 5 days ago, so there is that lag too.