Montco sees drop in hospital admissions
NORRISTOWN » Montgomery County entered the 16th week of the coronavirus outbreak on Monday, and officials reported the number of hospitalized patients continues to decrease as the county prepares to move to the next least restrictive “green phase” of the governor’s reopening plan on Friday.
“Our hospital bed situation continues to move in the right direction,” county Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh said during a news briefing, explaining 85 individuals were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Monday. “This is the lowest number we have seen to date since the pandemic began. So this is great news.”
Officials said 24 of the individ
uals, about 29 percent of those hospitalized, do require ventilators.
“This is actually the highest percentage of people who have needed a ventilator and I think that what this is telling us is that those who do remain in the hospital are in many cases quite ill,” Arkoosh said.
At the peak of the virus in April, more than 400 people had been hospitalized with COVID-19 in the county.
Hospitalizations are one metric that health officials will monitor closely while watching for surges in positive cases or so-called “hotspots” as the county enters the “green phase” of Gov. Tom Wolf’s colorcoded reopening plan.
In the green phase, large gatherings of more than 250 are still prohibited and masks are required when entering a business. Restaurants and bars can reopen at 50 percent occupancy and hair salons and
barbershops can open at 50 percent occupancy and by appointment only, according to the guidelines.
Indoor recreation and health and wellness facilities such as gyms and spas can open at 50 percent occupancy with appointments strongly encouraged, according to green phase regulations.
Entertainment venues such as casinos, theaters, and shopping malls can open at 50 percent occupancy.
“If you can continue to work from home, that is strongly encouraged,” Arkoosh added.
Emphasizing the importance of continuing to follow guidelines for social distancing and mask wearing, Arkoosh pointed out that a number of other states that reopened four to six weeks ago are experiencing surges in positive COVID-19 cases.
“So COVID-19 is not over. Green does not mean going back to the old normal. Green means going forward to a new normal, one where we are living as safely as possible with this virus. The risk is not going to be zero,” Arkoosh
said. “But there are straightforward steps that we can take to reduce the risk to ourselves and our families and to reduce the risk to our community as a whole.”
Meanwhile, officials reported 124 new positive cases of the coronavirus and one more death during the four-day period Friday through Monday.
The 124 new positive cases brought the county’s total number of cases to 8,041 since March 7 when the first two cases of the virus were identified in the county. Twenty-seven of the new cases involved residents of long-term care facilities and the remaining 97 were other members of the community.
The latest individuals to test positive included 67 females and 57 males who ranged in age from 2 to 104 and they resided in 35 municipalities, officials reported.
The latest death, a female, brought the COVID-19 death toll in the county to 781. To date, 411 females and 370 males have died from the virus.
Officials said 653 of the
total 781 deaths involved individuals who resided in long-term care facilities, representing about 84 percent of the total deaths.
The 781 total deaths were “confirmed positive” COVID-19 cases through the use of lab tests.
On Monday, officials said 88 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.
Testing for anyone who needs or wants to be tested continues to be available at the county’s communitybased testing sites in Pottstown, Norristown and Whitpain.
“I just want to encourage everyone to get tested. Don’t hesitate to get tested. It’s very important that people continue to get tested so that we can make sure that we have a clear picture of how much virus is circulating here in our community,” said Arkoosh, who was joined at the news briefing by fellow Commissioner
Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr.
A walk-up 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 walk-up communitybased testing site also is located on the parking lot of the Delaware Valley Community Health Norristown Regional Health Center, 1401 DeKalb St., in Norristown. Testing is provided by appointment only from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Monday through Friday and is open to Norristown residents and all established patients of the Delaware Valley Community Health Center regardless of where they reside. Residents can register for testing by calling 610592-0680 starting at 8:30 a.m. daily.
A drive-thru testing site at the central campus of the Montgomery County Community College in Whitpain will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 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 or can call 610631-3000 to register for a testing appointment.
Between April 16 and June 15 at the county testing sites, 10,095 individuals were tested and officials have received results for 9,909 individuals, 1,301 of whom tested positive for COVID-19. Officials said that computes to a positivity rate of about 13 percent over the 49-day period. However, during the last 14 days of testing, the positivity rate was even lower, at 11 percent.
At the peak of the virus in April, the positivity rate for individuals being tested was 24 percent.