Pennsylvania Department of Health begins separate count for COVID-19 readmissions – CBS Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – The number of COVID-19 cases is on the rise again, with infection rates, total cases and hospitalizations all increasing across the country.

Healthcare leaders are bracing for a possible spike in post-Thanksgiving spikes, including in people who have been reinfected with the virus.

Now, the Pennsylvania Department of Health is changing the way it counts cases to include those reinfected patients.

Starting today, the state’s health department will include COVID-19 re-infections as new cases when they release case counts.

Under the new guidelines, anyone who tests positive more than once in a 90-day period will be counted more than once when the numbers are reported. State leaders have always had data on people refinished, but previous protocols only required initial cases to be posted. This change comes as health leaders gain a better understanding of how the virus works.

“It’s a reasonable guess that people will only get it once. But now as we’ve seen, it’s much less like measles and more like flu-like illnesses,” said Dr. Randolph Peters.

Now that reinfection will be shared publicly, doctors hope the data will help them learn more about the virus and gauge infection rates. Dr. Peters also says it will provide some insight into natural immunity.

Dr Peters also pointed out that while the numbers of COVID-19 can fluctuate, the virus is evolving, and as long as that happens, the information and guidance surrounding the virus will change as well.