COVID-19 Update: Monday, February 9

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from Pennsylvania’s state government as of 4:30 P.M. on Monday, February 8, 2021.

Department of Health

The Department of Health has issued a health advisory with updates on the current COVID-19 variants and public health measures to take when a variant case is suspected or identified.
The Department of Health has published an update on COVID-19 vaccinations in Pennsylvania.
The Department of Health has published a summary of its contact tracing activity during the last week of January.
Last April the state legislature passed a COVID-19 bill that included a provision permitting direct support professionals who support individuals with intellectual disabilities/autism to accompany those individuals when they are hospitalized. On one of its message boards the Department of Health explains that “It has come to the Department’s attention that some facilities may not be adhering to this guidance… We appreciate your prompt attention to this matter.” The department posted a brief description of the issue and the results of a survey documenting the extent of the problem.
Last April the state legislature passed a COVID-19 bill that included a provision permitting direct support professionals who support individuals with intellectual disabilities/autism to accompany those individuals when they are hospitalized. On one of its message boards the Department of Health explains that “It has come to the Department’s attention that some facilities may not be adhering to this guidance… We appreciate your prompt attention to this matter.” The department posted a brief description of the issue and the results of a survey documenting the extent of the problem.

Department of Health – by the numbers

The number of new daily cases has continued to decline in the past week but remains more than twice the daily highs recorded in the spring.
The daily death toll remains very high, although not as high as three weeks ago.
For the week from January 29 through February 4 the state’s overall COVID-19 test positivity rate fell to 8.6 percent; it was 9.3 percent the week before that. This marked the seventh consecutive week the rate fell.
For the first time in several months, three counties have positivity rates less than five percent and no counties have positivity rates greater than 20 percent.
59 counties are currently in “substantial levels of community transmissions,” the smallest number this winter. One county – Cameron – is in a low level of community transmission and seven are in moderate levels of community transmission: Armstrong, Bedford, Cambria, Elk, Indiana, Westmoreland, and Wyoming.
The number of Pennsylvanians hospitalized with COVID-19 is just 60 percent of what it was in mid-January; the number in hospital ICUs, 63 percent; and the number on ventilators, 59 percent.
Currently, 23 percent of adult ICU beds in the state are unoccupied, as are 19 percent of medical/surgical beds, 16 percent of pediatric ICU beds, 31 percent of pediatric beds, and 35 percent of airborne isolation units.
As of February 8 the state’s vaccine dashboard shows that 726,000 Pennsylvanians have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 287,000 have received both doses of vaccine. These numbers do not include Philadelphia, which operates its own COVID-19 vaccination program.
The vaccine dashboard shows vaccine totals by county.

Department of State

The Department of State has issued a waiver that permits licensed volunteers under the State Board of Medicine, the State Board of Osteopathic Medicine, and the State Board of Nursing to administer vaccinations in settings that fall outside the definition of “approved clinic,” including community-based primary-care clinics and clinics in medically underserved areas and state and federally qualified health centers. See the waiver announcement here.
The Department of State has suspended certain state licensing requirements to enable physicians and nurses whose Pennsylvania licenses lapsed, expired, or were inactive within the last five years to administer COVID-19 vaccines. They will be permitted to do so without reactivating or renewing their licenses provided that they meet the specific qualification requirements and that, at the time of their licenses’ expiration, they were active and in good standing.
The Department of State has issued a waiver so that medical students, functioning as “clinical clerks” and not necessarily in hospitals to which they have been assigned, may “…assist in administering COVID-19 vaccinations…” when doing so under carefully defined supervision.
The Department of State has expanded a previous, temporary measure permitting licensed pharmacists and registered pharmacy interns to administer COVID-19 vaccines to persons younger than 18 years of age to enable those individuals to administer COVID-19 vaccines to individuals who are 16 and 17 years old as well. See the department’s notice here.
The Department of State’s Board of Dentistry announced that it will continue to temporarily waive the live-patient aspect of the dental hygienist clinical examination and accept instead the results of an alternative, the ADEX Manikin (non-patient) Examination.

Around the State

Elderly residents of rural Pennsylvania counties face challenges in getting COVID-19 vaccines. Spotlight PA reports.
A bill in the state legislature proposes engaging the Pennsylvania National Guard in the effort to advance the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in the state. The Allentown Morning Call tells the story.
Alison Beam, nominated by Governor Wolf to be the state’s next Secretary of Health, met last week with the editorial board of the Harrisburg Patriot-News to discuss the state of Pennsylvania’s effort to administer COVID-19 vaccines. Watch a video of that meeting.