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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The coronavirus has infected another 537 people and killed another 75 in Pennsylvania, the state Health Department said Thursday, even as the rate of new cases and the percentage of those testing positive continues to decline.
The agency said it has now confirmed nearly 74,000 cases and a total of 5,817 deaths because of the virus in Pennsylvania in the last three months.
On Friday, Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is expected to lift more restrictions, as it previously announced it would.
Nearly 6 million people in Philadelphia and seven other counties in hard-hit southeastern Pennsylvania are scheduled Friday to become the last in the state to shed the tightest restrictions under Wolf’s stoplight-colored three-phase reopening plan. That includes the stay-at-home order that is part of the so-called “red” phase.
Another 3.8 million people live in counties that are under Wolf’s least-restrictive “green” phase, or will be starting Friday.
The number of infections is thought to be far higher than the confirmed count because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected without feeling sick. About 69% of the people who tested positive have recovered, the department said, while the rate of positive tests is steadily falling, now below 18% of those tested.
The number of new cases per 100,000 residents is also dropping, at 67 per 100,000 over the last two weeks.
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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak