COVID-19 Update: Wednesday, July 22

The following is the latest information from Pennsylvania’s state government as of 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 22.

Department of Health

The Department of Health issued a news release describing its recent efforts to develop the state’s capacity to perform contact tracing for individuals diagnosed with COVID-19.
In the face of COVID-19-related challenges to making routine visits to doctors’ offices, the department has suspended for two months its regulation that children have certain vaccinations before they can attend public school or participate in early childhood education programs. See the department’s notice here.
The department has issued updated guidance on the discontinuation of isolation for persons with COVID-19 not in health care settings.

Department of Health – by the numbers

The number of new COVID-19 cases reported in Pennsylvania yesterday remains on par with the past week except for Monday’s major spike.
The number of new deaths reported today was the highest in the past week.
Over last weekend Pennsylvania quietly climbed above 100,000 total COVID-19 cases and 7000 deaths from the virus.
The state’s current seven-day average of 871 new cases is more than twice what it was in mid-June and higher than it has been at any time in the past two months.
For more perspective, the state has experienced:
- June 25-July 1: 4,051 new cases, an average of 578 per day
- July 2-8: 4,906 new cases, an average of 700 per day
- July 9-15: 5,517 new cases, an average of 788 per day
- July 16-22: 5,731 new cases, an average of 818 per day
The rising numbers are led by growing numbers of cases in southwestern Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia area.
The number of new cases in Allegheny County has been rising lately and is 1535 percent greater than it was this time a month ago.
Philadelphia’s seven-day average of 138 new cases a day is up from its seven-day average of 110 new cases a day the previous week.
The number of Pennsylvanians hospitalized with COVID-19 has risen above the 700 mark for the first time in nearly a month.
But the number requiring mechanical assistance to breathe is not rising at all.
37 percent of the beds in Pennsylvania’s acute-care hospitals are currently unoccupied, as are 40 percent of adult ICU beds, 57 percent of pediatric beds, 26 percent of pediatric ICU beds, and 66 percent of airborne isolation rooms.

Regional Response Health Collaboration Program

The Department of Health and Department of Human Services are holding an informational webinar on Friday, July 24^th from 9:00-10:00am EST to present an overview of the Regional Response Health Collaboration Program (RRHCP) available for long-term care providers state-wide. Interested parties can log into the webinar here or call in at 844-621-3956. The event password is DHS2020 and the event number and access code is 145 274 9024.

This new resource will give nursing homes and personal care and assisted-living facilities direct access to local support by health systems. The health systems that are part of the RRHCP will have regional call centers with 24/7 access for providers to have direct access to clinical consultation and technical assistance, assistance with universal testing, access to expertise in infection control, and the ability to deploy rapid response teams in case of emergency in conjunction with the Department of Health, Department of Human Services, and Pennsylvania Emergency Response Management.