More prison inmates test positive
Food distribution from federal government coming to address needs
EAGLEVILLE » Montgomery County officials reported more inmates at the county jail have tested positive for COVID-19 and also announced that a no-cost food distribution program is coming to the county, with the rollout occurring
Thursday in Willow Grove.
An inmate at the county jail in Lower Providence who previously tested negative for the coronavirus recently began showing symptoms of the disease and was retested and determined to be positive, according to officials.
“This was a trigger for us to retest any inmate who had previously tested negative. That testing was undertaken on May 21,” county Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh revealed during a Wednesday news briefing.
A total of 718 inmates were retested, and 92 of those inmates tested positive. Officials are still awaiting test results for 22 of the inmates.
“All individuals who tested positive for the virus have been put in isolation and their direct contacts quarantined. Currently, all inmates that have tested positive for COVID-19 are stable and we are proceeding to retest all the staff at the correctional facility this week,” Arkoosh said.
County officials previously tested all inmates and staff at the jail during a 48 hour period in early April. At that time, officials said 171 of the 942 inmates who were tested showed a positive result for the virus and they were isolated and their cellmates and other known contacts also were quarantined.
Including the latest positive cases at the jail, officials reported a total of 142 new positive cases of the virus countywide on Wednesday, bringing the county’s total number of positive cases to 6,688 since March 7, when the first two cases of the virus were identified in the county.
The 142 new positive cases included 104 males and 38 females who ranged in age from 7 to 97.
Additionally on Wednesday, officials reported 66 more deaths from the coronavirus, bringing the county’s death toll to 662 since March 7. The deaths, which included individuals who ranged in age from 38 to 99, occurred between April 10 and May 25.
“And this large number is due to a reconciliation between probable and confirmed deaths,” explained Arkoosh, who was joined at the news briefing by fellow commissioners Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr. and Joseph C. Gale.
To date, 354 females and 308 males have died from the virus in the county.
Arkoosh said 554 of the total 662 COVID-19 deaths were county residents who lived in long-term care facilities, representing more than 80-percent of the total deaths.
The 662 total deaths were “confirmed positive” COVID-19 cases through the use of lab tests.
Officials reported that as of Wednesday, 124 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.
Officials 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 Wednesday, 94 of the facilities reported positive COVID-19 cases among residents and staff. Specifically, officials reported there are 1,842 cases among residents of the facilities and 685 cases among staff at the facilities, for a total of 2,527 positive individuals.
Meanwhile, the commissioners announced a weekly COVID-19 food relief effort, coordinated by the Montco Anti-Hunger Network, in conjunction with the Eastern Montgomery County Emergency Management Group, Feeding Pennsylvania and Philabundance, will kick off Thursday at the Willow Grove Park Mall off Moreland Road.
The distribution of the food boxes will be coordinated by the Montgomery County Department of Public Safety.
Distribution is limited to 1,500 vehicles on a firstcome, first-served basis. Each vehicle will receive two boxes of food, regardless of household size, and anyone in need is welcome, officials said. No identification is required. Distribution will begin at 11 a.m. and end when supplies run out.
“This food is being provided at no cost through the United States Department of Agriculture Coronavirus Food Assistance Program and will consist of two boxes of food for each vehicle,” Arkoosh explained. “It is a six-week program with the possibility of renewing six weeks at a time, depending upon continued need and continued support of the program.”
This week, 1,500 boxes of mixed dairy foods and 1,500 boxes of mixed fruit and vegetables will be distributed to the 1,500 people who show up in their vehicles.
“There is no ability to select the food. These boxes are prefilled,” Arkoosh said.
Participants must arrive with their vehicles’ windows rolled up and stay inside the vehicles. Drivers will be directed to open their trunks and volunteers will place the food boxes inside in a contactless manner.
“We will be moving these distribution sites around the county to different locations each week. This is a once-a-week food distribution,” Arkoosh said.
More information about the weekly food distribution can be found at www. MontcoAntiHunger.org
Any food boxes that aren’t
distributed will be disbursed to local food banks in the county, officials said.
Meanwhile communitybased testing opportunities for the virus continue to be 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 supplies allow. Registration for each day’s appointments will open at 8 a.m. daily and will remain open until all spots are filled. Individuals can register online at www.montcopa.org/COVID-19 or can call 610-6313000 to register for a testing appointment. The drive-thru site will be closed on Sunday.
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.
Between April 16 and May 22, a total of 6,956 individuals were tested at the community-based testing sites. To date, officials have received results for 6,812 individuals, 936 of whom tested positive for the virus. Officials said that represents about a 13 percent positive rate, which is a reduction from the highest 24 percent positive rate that was recorded around April 5.