Delco wants you — to join Corona Corps at Glen Mills
Forget Uncle Sam.
Delaware County wants you, not for the Army, but for the Corona Corps. It’s all part of the war against the coronavirus and COVID-19.
Over the weekend a federal emergency medical station sprouted at the shuttered Glen Mills School in Thornbury. National Guard troops rolled in with truckloads of supplies and in a matter of hours constructed the station.
Now they need to staff it. To that end, Delaware County announced it was looking for 700 volunteers to staff the site.
The facility at the deserted home of what was at one time the nation’s premier reform schools will be utilized in the battle against the virus that has now infected more than 4,000 Pennsylvania residents, killing 49. Here in Delaware County, the numbers continue to spike as well, with 276 now testing positive for the virus, and a death toll standing at five.
The Glen Mills medical station will not actually be used for COVID-19 patients. Instead it will be used to house patients who have other, less serious afflictions, thus freeing up hospital beds for COVID-19 patients. In the next two weeks, health and medical experts expect the numbers so “surge,” possibly overwhelming the region’s hospitals. That’s where Glen Mills comes in, creating space for less serious cases and freeing up those precious hospital beds.
Delaware County Emergency Services chief Tim Boyce said the Glen Mills site will be able to handle an initial 250 patients from Delco and neighboring counties, even as far away as southern New Jersey, but can be expanded to take in 300 if needed.
“This facility is meant to help us care for low-acuity cases should the need arise in Delaware County or, in fact, the entire region,” said Delaware County Council Chairman Brian Zidek
Friday. “A low-acuity case would be a case that, where somebody would otherwise be in a hospital but is perhaps recovering from a minor surgery and hospitals, in the event that they are full treating COVID-19 patients, this facility would be available to handle the low-acuity cases.”
Boyce also wanted to reassure the community that this will not mean an influx of coronavirus-infected patients into the community.
“We’re not bringing COVID patients into the community, but I also want the community to be aware that COVID is in our communities and that assumption should be made with everyone in taking proper hygiene (actions),” Boyce said. “But this is not a … quarantine station, it’s a medical station to serve those unmet needs that we expect to happen.”
The council boss reaffirmed that position, in part to ease any concern from the public.
“There is a critical need for volunteers to serve their community as we face this pandemic together,” Zidek said. “We are fortunate to a have a safe location for our family members, friends and neighbors to go, where they can receive medical care in the event that our hospitals become overrun with COVID-19 emergencies. There has been a great deal of collaboration to bring this facility to Delaware County and now we are leaning on our community to come together and volunteer.”
Among those who worked to bring the site to fruition was U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-5 of Swarthmore, and both the state’s U.S. senators, Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Robert Casey Jr. Also on board were elected leaders from surrounding counties.
The station will be primarily staffed by medical personnel pulled from different hospitals and health care institutions through the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania. But they can’t do it alone.
That’s where the public is being invited to join the effort.
What’s needed? Officials are looking for active and retired workers from the health care fields, medical and nursing students, behavioral health professionals, administrative staff and others.
The transformation on the campus, directed by the Army Corps of Engineers and carried out by National Guard troops, was expedited by the expected surge of COVID-19 cases. Others partnering in the effort were the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), their counterparts here in the Keystone State in the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA), the Department of Health and other military partners.
It’s not the first time Glen Mills has stepped into the breech as the fight against the coronavirus pandemic has ramped up. The county already as using the site as their communications headquarters.
These are not the best of times for the once prestigious institution. Students were removed by the state amid an investigation into serious allegations of abuse. The new administration at the school has cooperated with investigators. Now they are stepping up in a critical time of need.
“The board of managers, the staff and everyone here is actually pleased to help during this time of need,” said Glen Mills Schools Acting Executive Director Christopher Spriggs. “We’ve had a great partnership with Delaware County and we’re really fortunate that they’ve had the foresight to work proactively to combat COVID-19.”
It was a first-rate move by Spriggs. And the school.
Now it’s the public’s turn.
The hope is that the surge never materializes, and that those beds now sitting on the floor of the Glen Mills gym are never used.
If so it would be one of the first times this pandemic has not taken a turn for the worse.
But the site is ready. Now it needs to be staffed.
It’s a call to arms in the fight against coronavirus. Now we need to answer the call.