Montco reports 15 more deaths
EAGLEVILLE » Montgomery County officials reported 15 more deaths from the coronavirus during the latest three-day period and asked residents to cooperate with a contact tracing program about to get off the ground in order to “keep our entire community safe.”
The 15 COVID-19 deaths reported Sunday through Tuesday included individuals who ranged in age from 62 to 101 and the deaths bring the county’s death toll to 596 since March 7, when the first two cases of the virus were identified in the county, Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr.
Valerie Arkoosh said Tuesday during a daily news briefing to update the community about the pandemic.
To date, 328 females and 268 males have died from the virus in the county. Officials said the racial breakdown for those that have died included: 13 Asian; three Asian Indian; two Asian Korean; 60 African American; and 182 white. Information about the ethnicity of the remaining 336 individuals was unavailable.
Arkoosh said 520 of the total 596 COVID-19 deaths were county residents who lived in long-term care facilities, representing about 87 percent of the total deaths.
The 596 total deaths were “confirmed positive” COVID-19 cases through the use of lab tests.
Officials reported that as of Tuesday, 186 other deaths in the county have been listed as “probable” COVID-19 deaths. Those are deaths that list COVID-19 as a cause of death on a death certificate but in which there was no laboratory confirmation of the virus.
Additionally, officials reported a total of 115 new positive cases of the virus during the three-day period ending Tuesday, bringing the county’s total number of cases to 6,546 since March 7. The
Under the plan, the county will collaborate with four nonprofit organizations to manage a staff complement of so-called “tracers” who will contact residents who test positive for COVID-19, determine their direct contacts and enter the information into an alert system that will allow officials to monitor the people who are positive and their contacts.
“Persons who test positive with the virus test will receive a call from our contact tracing team to offer guidance and to help persons recall who they had contact with during the time they were infectious,” Arkoosh explained. “Staff then will contact and warn those exposed individuals of their potential exposure as quickly and as sensitively as possible.
“The contacts are not given any information about who may have exposed them to the coronavirus. That is kept confidential. All information about the positive person is kept confidential as is the information about anyone who they exposed,” Arkoosh stressed.
“We are asking that every county resident cooperates with this county effort. By cooperating, this will help keep our entire community safe and keep our community open for business. This is what we need to do in our next phase and we really do hope everyone cooperates so that we don’t have to take any steps backward,” Arkoosh added.
Meanwhile, Arkoosh reported the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 continues to decrease and beds continue to be available at the county’s nine hospitals.
“We are now down to approximately 210 individuals being hospitalized for COVID-19 with 23 percent of them on ventilators. This is down from our highest point in which we were in the low 400s. So it’s great to see that number cut in half and just another sign of good progress here in the county,” said Arkoosh, who was joined at the news briefing by fellow commissioners Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr. and Joseph C. Gale. Officials said they continue to monitor coronavirus data from the 75 long-term care facilities in the county that are licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health as well as from “other congregate care settings” in the county, for a total of about 620 facilities. As of Tuesday, 94 of the facilities reported positive COVID-19 cases among residents and staff. Specifically, officials reported there are 1,822 cases among residents of the facilities and 659 cases among staff at the facilities, for a total of 2,481 positive individuals. Community-based testing opportunities for the virus are available in Pottstown, Whitpain and Norristown. A walkup testing site is available at the county’s Office of Public Health Pottstown Health Center at 364 King St. Testing is available Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. by appointment only. To make an appointment, residents should call 610-970-2937 beginning at 8:30 a.m. daily. A drive-thru site at the central campus of the Montgomery County Community College in Whitpain is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily as testing supplies allow. Registration for each day’s appointments will open at 8 a.m. daily and will remain open until all available spots are filled. Individuals can register online at www.montcopa.org/COVID-19 Individuals who do not have access to the internet or do not have an email address can call 610-631-3000 to register for a testing appointment. Between April 16 and May 21, the drive-thru site tested 6,761 individuals. To date, officials have received results for 6,520 individuals, 921 of whom tested positive for the virus. Officials said that represents about a 14 percent positive rate, which is a reduction from the highest 24 percent positive rate that was recorded around April 5. A walk-up communitybased testing site for Norristown residents is located on the parking lot of the Delaware Valley Community Health Norristown Regional Health Center, 1401 DeKalb St. The free testing is provided by appointment only from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Monday through Friday. In addition to being available to test Norristown residents, the site also offers tests to all established patients of the Delaware Valley Community Health Center regardless of where they reside, officials said. Residents can register for testing by calling 610-592-0680 starting at 8:30 a.m. daily.
“We are asking that every county resident cooperates with this county effort. By cooperating, this will help keep our entire community safe and keep our community open for business.”
- Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh