Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
County urging vigilance in move to ‘green’
Officials are warning citizens not to let their guard down.
As Delaware County settles into the “yellow” phase of reopening amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic, officials are warning citizens not to let their guard down.
“Right now, our biggest threat is complacency,” said health care advocate Rosemarie Halt, who has been acting as a liaison between the Chester County Health Department and Delaware County, which does not have its own health department.
“What I’ve seen is a lot of people almost see yellow as, ‘Oh great, we’re in yellow and I can go back and do all my normal things,’” she said. “So I think one of the things is that we really need people to understand is that this is still a COVID-19 pandemic and we still have lots of things that we need to monitor.”
As of Saturday, the state reported 463 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 78,462, though nearly 74 percent of patients diagnosed have recovered.
There are now 6,211 total deaths attributed to COVID-19 statewide, including 49 new deaths reported Saturday. John Hopkins University has pegged worldwide confirmed infections at 7,669,317, with the United States leading the death toll at 114,669.
Delaware County has had 6,643 confirmed cases, 225 probable cases and 616 deaths as of Friday, according to Pennsylvania Health Department figures. Residents in long-term care facilities accounted for 1,923 of those cases, along with another 404 employees. The vast majority of deaths, 538, also occurred in long-term care facilities.
Gov. Tom Wolf has implemented a series of benchmarks counties must hit as they move through the color-coded “red,” “yellow” and “green” stages of reopening, chief among them the number of new cases identified.
Delaware County was able to move from “red” to “yellow” on June 5 as a “stay-at-home” order in place since March 23 was lifted. This allowed some loosening of previous restrictions, including outdoor dining at bars and restaurants, opening of some previously shuttered businesses and gatherings of 25 or fewer people.
But residents and businesses are still expected to adhere to guidelines like wearing masks, social distancing and limiting the number of people in stores at one time. Those who can telecommute to work are still expected to do so where feasible and most shops are still encouraged to do curbside or delivery service.
“What we anticipate, as we’ve seen in other countries, is there are spikes as you move from phase to phase, which is to be expected,” said Halt. “But really this is not going to be over until we have a vaccine or until we have some better treatment. And what we are still hearing is that many people expect a second wave. You have to still prepare. This is a novel virus and we just don’t know, it may burn out, but the possibility exists that this could come back in a second wave later this year.”
Halt said people have done great job so far of following “curve-flattening” guidance, but everything is based on risk, which is why CCHD has stepped up its efforts to do contact tracing and infection investigation, and is looking hard at congregate care facilities for the most vulnerable members of the population.
“We’re looking of course at the data from the hospitals to see if they’re seeing an increase in cases of COVID in their ICUs and emergency rooms,” she said. “Right now, just in the last couple days, it looks pretty good and while we’re not totally declining, it’s kind of plateaued as far as the hospitals. We’re looking for that Memorial Day weekend surge or the surge from the protests. We haven’t seen a significant increase right now, so that’s a good thing.”
Halt noted there are more testing options available now as well. Pharmacies have received federal test kits that can be administered, though people will still need to regis
ter for them online. There are links available on the county website for registration and primary care physicians can still refer patients for testing if needed.
Halt said testing of vulnerable populations is still at the fore, however, and there is a plan to roll out a mobile testing unit this summer that can visit communities that don’t have access to health care, are at higher risk or have an outbreak.
But Halt added that a lot of things are not in the numbers, like trends. A large part of public health is monitoring, targeting and identifying, she said, so CCHD is looking for public health trends in things like social media posts or high risk facilities, and trying to react as quickly as possible on the contact tracing, investigation and testing side to mitigate any hot spots that might flare up.
“The tricky part is the gatherings of 25 people or less,” she said “Now that the weather’s nice and people are outside and people are just desperate for social contact, it’s really trying to minimize (that potential for spread). I think people probably heard in reports and things that when there are large social gatherings, that’s where the biggest risk is and where we’ve seen outbreaks in different parts of the state and country.”
The Associated Press noted in a June 11 report that several states that rolled back restrictions early have already seen case spikes, which is attributed to a combination of more testing being done, but also in some areas, like Arizona, an apparent abandonment of social distancing and mask requirements.
Closer to home, there is a legal fight brewing over the governor’s power to enact emergency disaster declarations. Wolf declared a coronavirus emergency March 6 and renewed it for another 90 days June 3.
But the Republican-controlled state Senate and House concurred on a resolution last week to revoke the March order and filed suit in Commonwealth Court seeking an order forcing Wolf to end the declaration. Wolf, a Democrat, responded with his own petition to the state Supreme Court indicating such a move would undermine the checks-and-balances of the separate branches of government as laid out by the state Constitution.
Regardless of how that plays out in court, however, officials are still urging Delco residents to be vigilant with the measures currently in place if they want to make it to the “green” phase.
“It’s just another step and if you don’t do it carefully, you’re going to end up back in the yellow or back in the red, as we are seeing in some of the states that have just plowed forward without too much respect for some of the regulations,” said County Councilwoman Elaine Paul Schaefer.
“I think we can do it if we really continue to be on our guard and remember that the virus is still among us,” said County Councilman Kevin Madden. “It’s still here. The numbers might be down, but we have new cases every single day. If we keep our guard up, we can get to green. I think we truly can safely do that, but it’s just going to be driven by the numbers.”
Madden noted that the county has come a long way with regard to those numbers since mid-April, when there were about 120 or 130 new cases reported daily. That has gotten down to about 30 new cases per day and the “percent positivity” per 100 people is trending at about 6 percent, he said, a huge decrease from the prior 45 percent in April.
“Although we’ve moved to a phase doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t move backwards in a phase as well if the situation warranted,” warned Halt. “We have to keep in mind that a lot of the goals in this is to decrease lives lost and then to ensure that the hospital systems are not overwhelmed, and that we have the ability to meet the supplies of personal protective equipment to keep everyone safe, including our health care workers and first responders … and the patients being treated.”
But she added that officials are keenly aware of the sacrifices people have made, especially businesses, in trying to achieve those goals. Schaefer noted the county has partnered with local businesses, the Delco Chamber of Commerce and other stakeholders to try to lessen that blow.
“It’s sort of bringing them together on what businesses need and trying to address those needs as we navigate from red to yellow to green,” said Schaefer. “So what’s come out of that is we’re having a third webinar next week on some of the issues that have come up and people need guidance on and we have put together these ‘going back to business’ kits that we are selling for $10. They’re worth about $100.”
Schaefer said the county purchased 500 of those kits in a first round that sold out in two days. There is another order of 1,000 more that will be distributed June 22 and 23, which businesses can order on the chamber of Commer website through the “Bringing Back Delco” initiative. Sachafer said about 200 orders have already been placed for the second round.
“The businesses have really appreciated that because the things that are in those kits are really hard to find and they’re very overpriced when you find them, things like masks and gloves and the disinfectant wipes and the little stickers you put on the floor telling people to be six feet apart,” she said. “They’ll need all of that stuff even in the green. It’s not like we’re going to green and you don’t need to do any of this anymore.”