COVID-19 Update: Friday, July 24

The following is the latest information from Pennsylvania’s state government as of 2:45 p.m. on Friday, July 24.

Department of Health

With much Department of Health staff working remotely with limited access to mail, the department has requested that all communications to its Division of Acute and Ambulatory Care be made electronically to RA-DAAC@pa.gov with no additional copies sent via regular mail.

Department of Health – by the numbers

The number of new COVID-19 cases reported today is the highest in more than two months.
Philadelphia and Allegheny County together account for 35 percent of those new cases but the number of non-Philadelphia, non-Allegheny County cases remains very high.
The number of new deaths reported remains in line with recent figures.
As does the number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19, which is higher than it was more than three weeks ago but the same as it has been for the past three days.
The number of COVID-19 patients requiring mechanical assistance to breathe is not rising at all.
Nearly 19,000 residents and staff members in 813 long-term-care facilities in 60 counties have tested positive for COVID-19.
Residents of those facilities continue to account for 68 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the state.
More than 7800 health care workers in the state have tested positive for COVID-19.
34 percent of the beds in Pennsylvania’s acute-care hospitals are currently unoccupied, as are 36 percent of adult ICU beds, 27 percent of pediatric ICU beds, and 66 percent of airborne isolation rooms.
More than 151,000 COVID-19 tests were administered in Pennsylvania during the past seven days.
639 Pennsylvanians have now tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies.
Pennsylvania now has 36 confirmed cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), up just one case in the past week, with another 16 possible cases under investigation.

Department of Human Services

DHS has posted an FAQ on the allowable uses of Pennsylvania Emergency Coronavirus Relief Funds (federal CARES Act money allocated to the state and directed to health care providers by the state through Pennsylvania Act 24 of 2020) and the manner in which fund recipients will be required to account for their use of this money. The purpose of this funding is to pay for necessary expenses, lost revenue from COVID-19 business interruption for non-public entities, and COVID-19-related hazard or incentive pay incurred between March 1, 2020, and November 30, 2020. DHS has not yet released the COVID-19 cost reporting form it will use to capture costs incurred by entities that received these payments. Find the FAQ here.
DHS announced that it has resumed annual on-site inspections of its licensed settings but may apply alternative techniques such as videoconferencing for annual inspections that do not require an on-site presence.
DHS will host a COVID-19 update call for stakeholders on Wednesday, July 29 at 4:00 PM. Interested parties can register for the call here.