HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania is among the top six states where people are being hospitalized for COVID, according to data from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
But since the omicron variant’s arrival in the commonwealth, and with cases surging, state health officials have shifted how they deliver daily virus updates and reduced them from daily to weekly.
Chrysan Cronin, director of public health at Muhlenberg College, said this is not a good time to scale-back on public information.
“The Department of Health has a responsibility to keep this state as safe as possible. And that means that [they should] continue to beat the drum, and give a COVID update every day,” said Cronin.
Cronin said she’s also concerned about issues with the state’s COVID reporting system, which has miscalculated case numbers in the past.
“We have to know the magnitude of the problem in order to know the kinds of interventions we need to implement,” Cronin said.
In a statement, the Department of Health said it moved to weekly COVID updates because they say it gives the public a “clearer picture” of what’s happening.
Daily numbers are still being provided on the department's online COVID tracker.
