Montgomery County officials announced via a press release today that there are 129 new positive cases of Coronavirus since yesterday. That brings the total number of cases to 3,600 across the county. The county also announced 13 additional deaths, which brings the countywide total to 207 since the start of the pandemic.

Ten out of the 13 deaths involved a resident of a long-term care facility. All were between the ages of 76 and 95.

“We continue to report a steady number of individuals testing positive for COVID-19, which reinforces the continued need to stay at home except for essential work and essential errands,” said Dr. Valerie A. Arkoosh, Chair, Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. “I am also saddened to report the deaths of 13 individuals.”

The latest local data is as follows:

• Conshohocken is at 26 cases, which is two more than yesterday
  • There have been zero deaths in Conshohocken
• Whitemarsh is at 101 cases, which is three more than yesterday
  • There have been nine deaths overall in Whitemarsh
• Plymouth is at 75 cases, which is one more than yesterday
  • There have been four deaths overall in Plymouth
• West Conshohocken has three cases, which is the same as yesterday
  • There have been zero deaths in West Conshohocken

We have also developed the below chart to track the number of daily positive cases by date, over the last 14 days. The benchmarks set by Governor Wolf to move from the current phase red to phase yellow requires the reduction of the daily average of new cases over 14 days to be 30. Note that there are other requirements and all of the counties in the southeastern section of Pennsylvania have to have similar success achieving the benchmarks.

We asked two doctors to review our table and they confirmed it to be correct. However, we believe that what the daily positive number includes needs to be clarified. Is it everyone? Or should it exclude those testing positive in long-term care facilities? Arkoosh has also stated publicly that the real number to follow is the number of positive tests by test date. The only numbers the county is releasing reflects the date the results are received. How the number is determined needs to be quickly resolved and made public.

Yesterday, the first day we published the chart, the difference was 89. Today it rose by two to 91.