With fears rising that the coronavirus news cycle is about to enter a potentially devastating period, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine stressed this weekend that residents must remain vigilant in their efforts to stem the tide of cases statewide.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced on Wednesday that all 67 counties in Pennsylvania were under stay-at-home orders through the end of April in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19.

“Overall, the governor and I feel that Pennsylvanians will do the right thing, and the right thing is to practice social distancing, and the right thing is for people to stay home, unless an activity is life-sustaining, such as getting food, and getting medicine,” said Levine. “It is OK to go outside and exercise, if you are doing that in a solitary way. So if you’re going out for a walk by yourself, then that is fine.

“If you are doing that with a gathering of people, then that would not be correct because then you are potentially going to expose each other to the dangerous virus, COVID-19.”

Levine said that there are no other actions planned in addition to the statewide stay-at-home order.

“The schools are closed, non-life-sustaining essential businesses are closed,” Levine said. “And now we have a new mask order, if someone is going outside.

“We’re going to depend upon Pennsylvanians to do the right thing for themselves, for their families, for the community, and for our commonwealth.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed that as of midnight on Sunday there were 1,493 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 11,510 in 65 counties.

The department also reported 14 new deaths among positive cases, bringing the statewide total to 150.

In numbers reported last Sunday, there were 3,394 cases in 58 counties.

Carbon County had 50 cases and one death, which was reported last week. Lehigh County had 877 cases and eight confirmed deaths, up from the seven reported Saturday.

Monroe County had 525 cases and 11 deaths. Northampton was at 636 cases and 11 deaths, while Schuylkill had 90 cases and no deaths.

In an effort to stop the spread of the virus, Wolf on Friday announced that Pennsylvanians should wear masks when going out in public.

“The masks are designed for people who might not have significant symptoms, but might be shedding virus, to avoid shedding virus to surfaces with a cough or sneeze on them,” Levine said. “Or, in terms of aerosolization of the droplets if someone coughs or sneezes.

“So again, my mask protects you, your mask protects me.”

While the landing spot of the peak is still a moving target, Levine noted that determining its path is ongoing, efforts that continued during a meeting with the University of Pittsburgh’s Analytics Team on Saturday.

“We discussed the methods that they are using with their excellent prediction model,” Levine said. “And then also some of the assumptions - the variables and parameters - that they put into that. And we’ll be looking forward to more data by the beginning of next week.”

While aware that the number of cases has continued to grow, especially in the southeastern and northeastern portions of the state, Levine pointed to trends in assessing the data that is being studied.

“The day-by-day changes are really dependent on a number of different factors, and a lot of that depends upon the laboratories that are reporting into our system that we collect in a day,” she said. “Very small variations don’t mean much; it’s going to be trends over time, and when we look at three-day averages and seven-day averages over time, it’s going up.

“So we need to be prepared for that surge over time, and then we need to mitigate and prevent the surge from becoming overwhelming by practicing social distancing and staying at home. I can’t tell you when exactly that’s going to be.”

Despite Pennsylvania’s “C” status among states graded for their social distancing practices, Levine was unfazed, noting that the score was delivered before Wolf’s sweeping stay-at-home order, something she believes is the best way to stop the spread of the virus.

“More important than a scoreboard is what everybody does now,” Levine said. “The governor and I are calling upon everybody to do the right thing, and please stay home to protect the commonwealth.”