Pennsylvania surges past 40,000 coronavirus cases, and New Jersey isn’t close to opening

The count of infected Pennsylvanians surged past 40,000 on Saturday, even as the state prepared to reopen some less affected areas and authorities dickered over the actual number of people killed by the coronavirus.

More cases and deaths occurred in New Jersey, where hospitalizations continued to rise in the southern counties. While the growth of COVID-19 cases seemed to have plateaued in Philadelphia, it remained far above the level deemed necessary to safely lift the stay-at-home order that has emptied city parks, streets, and stadiums.

On a spring day when gardens burst in color and everyone seemed to be outside in the sunshine, fresh horror emerged about the virus’ ability to attack the human body: Healthy people in their 30s and 40s, hardly sick, are dying from strokes.

The numbers are small but provide unnerving new insights.

Thought to mainly attack the lungs, the virus can impact nearly every major organ system, scientists are learning. Three large American medical centers, including Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia, are preparing to publish data on the stroke phenomenon.

An academic paper is under review for publication by a medical journal, said Jefferson neurosurgeon Pascal Jabbour.

In the Philadelphia region and elsewhere, the pandemic continued to tease, tear, and terrify on Saturday.

Einstein Medical Center said it has ended its contract with the funeral home that transported several bodies to the medical examiner in the back of an open pickup truck last weekend. And Delaware Gov. John Carney ordered residents age 13 and older to wear face coverings in “public settings,” including in grocery stores and on public transportation.

Some beaches reopened in California. In Georgia, the governor said it was OK for gyms, barbershops, and bowling alleys to restart. In Illinois, a family was wrecked, a 20-year-old son and his mother killed by the same virus that her husband barely survived.

The worldwide death toll surpassed 200,000 as total confirmed cases neared three million.

In Italy, relatives of the dead called for criminal prosecutions of authorities who they say botched the early handling of the outbreak. France considered how to begin reopening schools. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was either dead, sick, or fine, depending on reports, but definitely trending on Twitter under the hashtag #KIMJONGUNDEAD.

In northeastern Pennsylvania, 14 ICE immigration detainees at the Pike County Correctional Facility have tested positive for the virus. That’s part of a surge that has seen detention-center infections increase nearly tenfold in less than three weeks, from 32 to 317 nationwide.

» READ MORE: In an ICE detention center in Pa., one migrant’s case of COVID-19

Grocery-store and meat-plant workers in Pennsylvania have died of the highly contagious virus, and some meat-processing plants around the country, including in Montgomery County and northeastern Pennsylvania, have closed.

Officials announced on Saturday that symptomatic agriculture, food supply, and grocery store workers in those two areas are now eligible for testing at state-sponsored sites in Blue Bell and Wilkes-Barre.

“It's a step to further acknowledge the risk and sacrifice being made by these workers, and further ensure that food will be on the shelves at both our grocery stores and food banks,” Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding said.

» FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered.

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board plans to expand its curbside pickup program to nearly all its stores Monday, opening 565 of its roughly 600 stores statewide. Customers can place orders only by phone, which has led to an outbreak of busy signals.

Pennsylvania reached the grim, 40,000-plus milestone on Saturday even as officials prepare to begin reopening some regions as early as May 8. But before that — nothing is planned for Philadelphia and its collar counties — the state must work to increase testing and contact tracing of COVID-19 cases, Health Secretary Rachel Levine said Saturday.

“There continues to be spread of COVID-19,” she said at a news briefing.

State and local officials have complained in recent weeks of a lack of testing supplies, but Levine said Saturday that those stores have increased.

“Our state laboratory in the last week has obtained significant number of supplies,” Levine said. “We want to be sure that we’re able to do testing of even mildly symptomatic Pennsylvanians.”

As of Saturday, Pennsylvania’s virus-related death toll stood at 1,537. She and other state officials plan to talk with county coroners about their concerns regarding communication with the state Health Department, after the state removed more than 200 deaths this week, considering them to be “presumed” rather than confirmed cases of COVID-19.

The state will work with coroners “to explain our opinion and to work out a solution and a path forward,” she said.

» READ MORE: As Jersey Shore season teeters, a North Wildwood family motel says it will close for the summer

Philadelphia officials reported 459 new cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, pushing the total past 12,000.

The number of new cases announced each day in Philadelphia has stood at about 400 for the last week, Health Department officials said. That’s positive, but Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said the figure must fall below 50 per day to consider lifting the stay-at-home order.

City officials reported 17 more deaths on Saturday, raising the total to 466.

Hospitalizations increased 6% in the last week in South Jersey, according to the state Health Department, but dropped 19% in hard-hit North Jersey.

Gov. Phil Murphy said Saturday that efforts to mitigate the spread show that the “curve is flattening,” but he stressed that more progress must be made “before we can begin implementing the new normal that waits for our state on the other side of this pandemic.”

An additional 3,457 New Jersey residents have tested positive for COVID-19, officials announced Saturday, bringing the total to 105,523. The death toll stood at 5,863.

“Public health must come before we can begin to restart our economy,” Murphy said. “We cannot let up, we cannot let a beautiful spring day like this prevent our social distancing. There will be many other spring days to come, and we can enjoy them together. But not now.”

Staff writers Vinny Vella and Diane Mastrull contributed to this article.