COVID-19 deaths reach 454; hospitals receive antiviral drug
Montgomery County officials on Thursday reported 11 more COVID-19 deaths and 143 new positive cases of the virus.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Health reported it has distributed the investigational antiviral medication remdesivir to some local hospitals to treat patients with COVID-19.
The 11 latest COVID-19 deaths included individuals who ranged in age from 54 to 97 and the deaths bring the county’s death toll to 454 since March 7, when the first two cases of the virus were identified in the county, Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh said Thursday during a daily news briefing to update the community about the pandemic.
To date, 251 females and 203 males have
died from the virus in the county.
Arkoosh added 398 of the total 454 deaths were individuals who resided in longterm care facilities, comprising about 88 percent of the total deaths.
The 454 total deaths were “confirmed positive” COVID-19 cases through the use of lab tests.
Arkoosh said 202 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 143 new positive cases of the virus on Thursday, bringing the county’s total number of cases to 5,523 since March 7. Eighty-eight of the latest individuals to test positive resided in long-term care facilities in the county, one was from the Norristown State Hospital and the remaining 54 were other residents in the community, according to officials.
The new positive cases included 66 males and 77 females who ranged in age from 14 to 99 and the individuals were residents of 31 municipalities. To date, all 62 of the county’s municipalities are home to individuals with COVID-19. Bryn Athyn reported its first case of the virus on Thursday, becoming the last municipality to do so.
Arkoosh reported the county continues to have beds available at the county’s nine hospitals.
“Our hospital beds are stable. We still have individuals numbering in the high 200s hospitalized with 32 percent of those individuals requiring ventilators,” said Arkoosh, who was joined at the news briefing by fellow commissioners Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr. and Joseph C. Gale.
State Department of Health officials said the state has distributed the investigational antiviral medication remdesivir to several county hospitals to treat patients with COVID-19.
According to state officials, those local hospitals and the number of vials of the drug they are to receive included: Abington Memorial Hospital, 36; Albert Einstein at Elkins Park, 18; Lansdale Hospital, 18; Main Line-Lankenau Hospital, 36; Main Line-Bryn Mawr Hospital, 18; Chestnut Hill Hospital, 18; Holy Redeemer Hospital and Medical Center, 18; and Einstein Medical Center-Montgomery Hospital, 18.
The federal government distributed the first shipment of 1,200 doses to the state on Tuesday and the entire allotment was shipped to 51 Pennsylvania hospitals this week, according to state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine.
“The department is working to give our hospitals every opportunity to treat patients with COVID-19,” Levine wrote in a press release. “It is important to note that there is limited information on the safety and effectiveness of using remdesivir to treat people in the hospital with COVID-19. However, it was shown in a clinical trial to shorten the recovery time in some people, which is why the Food and Drug Administration has authorized the emergency use of the medication for treatment.”
The hospitals that received the first shipments were determined based on the number of COVID-19 patients at the hospital over a recent seven-day period, and the severity of the illness of those patients, based on whether they are on a ventilator.
Remdesivir is given to a patient intravenously once per day for up to 10 days, depending on how critically ill the patient is, according to health officials. The federal Food and Drug Administration has said remdesivir may help decrease the
amount of coronavirus in a patient’s body, which may help them get better faster.
Officials said they continue to monitor coronavirus data from the 75 longterm 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 Thursday, 93 of the facilities reported positive COVID-19 cases among residents and staff. Specifically, officials reported there are 1,610 cases among residents of the facilities and 597 cases among staff at the facilities, for a total of 2,207 positive individuals.
Gale, the lone Republican on the three-member commissioners’ board, once again broke with his colleagues and criticized the pandemic response by Gov. Tom Wolf and Levine, particularly when it came to addressing long-term care facilities.
“There is no question that Governor Wolf and Secretary Levine have been a complete and utter failure since this pandemic began. Nearly 70 percent of the deaths in Pennsylvania are from long-term care facilities. Over 80 percent of the deaths in Montgomery County are from long-term care facilities. It should not have been this way,” Gale said.
“Instead of quarantining the infected residents of nursing homes, Gov. Wolf quarantined the healthy residents of Pennsylvania with a Draconian stay-athome order,” Gale added.
Officials said testing opportunities continue to be available in Lansdale, Whitpain and Norristown.
The 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
The drive-thru site will be open on Friday but will be closed on Saturday. The site will reopen for testing on Sunday.
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 11, the drive-thru site tested 4,871 individuals. To date, officials have received results for 4,716 individuals, 652 of whom tested positive for the virus. Officials said that comes out to about a 13.8 percent positive rate, which is a reduction from the highest positive rate of 24 percent that was recorded during the first week of April.
“This downward trend is a result of the many personal sacrifices that so many of you have made over these last weeks. It’s taken time to get to this point where there is a downward trend,” said Arkoosh, adding it’s important for residents “to continue to sit tight and maintain social distancing so that we may continue this trend.”
“Because given the amount of virus that is still in our midst, it would be very easy for this trend to reverse,” Arkoosh said.
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.
Norristown residents can register for testing by calling 610-592-0680 starting at 8:30 a.m. daily.
The Rite Aid Pharmacy located at 1856 N. Broad St. in Lansdale also is offering no-cost testing for anyone over 18. Officials said appointments for the tests may be scheduled online by visiting www.riteaid.com/ pharmacy/services/COVID19-testing