Montco reports 160 new cases; 5 more deaths
EAGLEVILLE » Montgomery County officials reported five more COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, bringing the county’s death toll to 32, and revealed that 34 of the 75 long-term care facilities in the county have reported cases of the virus.
The latest COVID-19 victims included: a 94-year-old Upper Gwynedd man; an 80-year-old Norristown woman; a 78-year-old Springfield woman; a 75-year-old Upper Merion woman; and an 86-year-old Whitemarsh man.
Three of the individuals passed away while in a hospital and two died at home, according to county Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh.
“We do express our condolences to the friends and loved ones and family of these folks,” Arkoosh said.
Officials said there were 160 new positive cases of the virus reported since Monday, bringing the county’s total number of cases to 1,294 since March 7.
The new cases included residents from 38 municipalities. To date, 59 of the county’s 62 municipalities have reported coronavirus cases.
The new cases in the county included at least 74 males and 86 females whose ages ranged from 17 to 101. Twelve of the individuals are hospitalized, officials said.
“We continue to have open hospital beds in all of our Montgomery County hospitals so we’re
extremely pleased to hear that and we want to thank all of those who have been staying home and helping us flatten the curve,” said Arkoosh, re-emphasizing the social distancing recommendations of public health officials who say the measures can help prevent the spread of the virus and prevent hospitals and first responders from becoming overwhelmed.
The peak of the virus in the county is expected to occur mid-April.
“What we’re seeing in our numbers and what we’re hearing from our local hospitals tells me that the vast majority of you are really doing a good job with staying home, that it is making a difference here,” Arkoosh said.
“We still have beds open and we are very hopeful that if people continue to
that if people continue to stay home, no matter what you call 911 for next week, whether it’s COVID-19 or you’re having a heart attack, that there will be a paramedic who can pick you up
and there will be a hospital bed for you on the other side of that ride,” Arkoosh added. “So please keep at it. Stay home now.”
On Monday, officials said about 250 individuals are currently hospitalized with a diagnosis of COVID-19 in county hospitals and that about 70 of the patients require a ventilator for their
care.
Officials added on Tuesday that 34 of the 75 longterm care facilities in the county that are licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health have reported positive cases of coronavirus.
“In total, we have 140 cases that are in the residents of these facilities and
53 cases that are staff members that work at these facilities,” said Arkoosh, who was joined at a news briefing by fellow commissioners Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr. and Joseph C. Gale and Dr. Brenda Weis, administrator of the Office of Public Health.
Arkoosh explained county health and senior
services officials have daily contact with the long-term care facilities in the county “to assess the real time occurrence of COVID-19 in these sites.”
“Outreach is being done to our hardest hit facilities in order to assess their needs and provide guidance based on the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
and the Pennsylvania Department of Health guidelines,” Arkoosh said.
The county’s communitybased COVID-19 testing site at Temple University’s Ambler Campus in Upper Dublin will continue to be open through Friday, April 10. Officials said 4,204 people were tested at the site
through April 6.
Sixty-one percent of the test results have been returned and revealed that about 21-percent of the individuals tested positive, according to officials.
“Sadly, the site will be shutting down at the end of the day Friday. I want to emphasize that it is not the county that is shutting down this site. As I’ve discussed from the very beginning, this asset, this site, was put up with help from partners at the federal government level and the state level,” said Arkoosh, explaining the federal government provided the test kits and the contract with LabCorp to test 250 samples every day that the site was open. “That is really the limiting step for us. We don’t have any additional kits here in the county nor do we have a commitment from a lab to take those samples and test them every single day,” Arkoosh explained. “These are incredibly scarce resources and we do not have a way here at the county level to make up for these test kits or make up for that contract with LabCorp. I wish we had a way to magically produce more test kits but we just don’t and that is the position that we are in.” However, Arkoosh said the county’s hospitals now provide testing, which was not the case when officials opened the drive-thru testing site on March 20. “So there are places all over the county now where people can be tested,” Arkoosh said. Arkoosh added officials are “extremely grateful” for the partnership that arranged the drive-thru testing site. “By the end of the week, we hope to have tested just over 5,000 people. It has provided an enormous amount of data for us in the county as we tracked this disease,” Arkoosh said. The site will provide testing by appointment only through Friday. The link to register for a test appointment is available at www.montcopa.org/ COVID-19 as well as at the county’s official social media accounts, officials said. Individuals who do not have access to the Internet or do not have an email address can call 610-631-3000 at 8 a.m. daily to register for a testing appointment that day.