COVID-19 Update: Wednesday, July 29

The following is the latest information from the Pennsylvania state government as of 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 29.

The Wolf Administration

The Wolf Administration announced the availability of 24/7 call centers to provide clinical and operational support to long-term-care facilities as they seek to protect residents and staff from COVID-19. The call centers are run and staffed by health systems participating in the Regional Response Health Collaboration Program (RRHCP), an education and clinical support network launched for long-term-care providers earlier this month. The announcement, found here, includes contact information for long-term-care facilities seeking assistance.

Department of Health

The department announced that all 693 nursing homes in the state have completed testing all residents and staff for COVID-19 at least once, in accordance with Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine’s universal testing order issued June 8.

Department of Health – by the numbers

The number of new COVID-19 cases reported the past two days has been high; the number reported on Tuesday was the second highest since late May.
The number of new deaths remains low but is up slightly the past two days.
The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 is higher than at any time since June 17.
The number of COVID-19 patients requiring mechanical assistance to breathe is higher than it has been at any time since July 2.
More than 8100 health care workers in the state have tested positive for COVID-19.
37 percent of the beds in Pennsylvania’s acute-care hospitals are currently unoccupied, as are 37 percent of adult ICU beds, 26 percent of pediatric ICU beds, 50 percent of pediatric beds, and 68 percent of airborne isolation rooms.

Other Numbers

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported yesterday that “Tuesday’s near-record number of new reported hospitalizations come days after the record high, 22, was announced Friday.”
The Tribune-Review noted that “After two consecutive days of reporting no covid-19 deaths, the county saw its second highest reported increase in deaths this month, bringing the death total to 229” and that “The new covid-19 cases reported Tuesday come from 1,804 test results and have a positivity rate of 6.59%.” [Note: During a press briefing last week, Secretary of Health Levine said she starts to worry when positivity rates exceed five percent.]
Today the Tribune-Review reports that “Allegheny County recorded new coronavirus cases in triple digits for the seventh straight day on Wednesday. The Allegheny County Health Department reported 125 new cases, along with five additional deaths and 10 new hospitalizations.”
Across the state, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that “New daily case numbers and averages keep rising in Philadelphia and its four neighboring counties, in many cases making a fairly steady climb in July, state data shows. That means progress made in May and June in flattening the curve of infections appears to be eroding.”
In addition, the Inquirer reported that “Two weeks ago, Philadelphia’s weekly average of new cases per day was 111; in the last week, the average reached 164…. The positivity rate reported Tuesday was about 5.2%.”
Increased case counts in southeastern Pennsylvania go beyond Philadelphia, the Inquirer added, noting that “The average number of new daily cases has at least doubled in Bucks, Chester, and Montgomery Counties in the last month, and more than quadrupled in Delaware County, according to state data.”