Steep rise in Montco death toll
EAGLEVILLE » One month after the first coronavirus case was identified in Montgomery County, the death toll continued to climb on Wednesday as officials announced 11 more county residents succumbed to the virus.
“All of these individuals died in the hospital,” said county Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, adding the deaths occurred during the last several days.
“But we are definitely seeing a trend up. Even once we’ve reached our peak, which I don’t believe we have, but even once we have and are on our way back down in terms of number of new cases, we would continue to see maybe even an increase in deaths for a little while longer … because most people are going to the hospital, spending some time there before they actually succumb to the disease. So we would continue to expect to see deaths even when we’re on our way down from the peak,” Arkoosh explained.
The deaths bring the county’s total death toll to 43.
The latest COVID-19 victims included: a 62-year-old Lower Merion woman; a 72-yearold woman and a 61-yearold woman from Cheltenham; an 83-year-old man, an 85-year-old man, an 86-year-old man, an 82-year old woman, and a 93-year-old man, all from Upper Gwynedd; a 90-year-old Ambler man; a 90-year-old Hatfield man; and a 48-year-old Norristown woman.
Officials said there were 108 new positive cases of the virus reported since Tuesday, bringing the county’s total number of cases to 1,402 since March 7.
The new cases included residents from 31 municipalities. To date, 59 of the county’s 62 municipalities have reported coronavirus cases. The three municipalities that have reported no coronavirus cases are Bryn Athyn, Pennsburg and West Conshohocken.
The new cases in the county included at least 48 males and 60 females whose ages ranged from 15 to 99. Two of the individuals are hospitalized, officials said.
County officials continue to have daily contact with all of the major hospital systems in the county.
“I am very pleased to tell you that thanks to everybody’s hard work at staying at home, all of our hospitals have open beds, both in regular beds and in their intensive care units and all of our hospitals have ventilators available. So we’re extremely pleased about that,” said Arkoosh, reemphasizing the social distancing recommendations of public health officials who say the measures can help prevent the spread of the virus and prevent hospitals and first responders from becoming overwhelmed.
The peak of the virus in the county is expected to occur mid-April.
Currently, officials said, about 250 individuals are hospitalized with a diagnosis of COVID-19 in county hospitals and some of the patients require a ventilator for their care.
“Based on our calls to the hospitals, some hospitals have been able to discharge some people, which is great news. But those people have been largely replaced, so we’re staying pretty steady right now,” said Arkoosh, who was joined at the Wednesday news briefing by fellow commissioners Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr. and Joseph C. Gale, and Dr. Alvin Wang, regional EMS medical director, and Dr. Brenda Weis, administrator of the Office of Public Health.
As of Wednesday, 51 of the 75 long-term care facilities in the county that are licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health have reported positive cases of coronavirus. Officials said 155 cases involve residents of the facilities and there are 71 staff members from the facilities that have tested positive.
Statistics regarding the number of coronavirus deaths in the county’s longterm care facilities were not available.
County health officials have shared information about coronavirus in the long-term care facilities with the county’s hospital systems.
“We don’t think we’re quite at the top of our peak yet and so as we look at the next week to 10 days we want to make sure that everybody has all the awareness that we do across our hospital systems and that everyone is planning accordingly,” Arkoosh explained.
Arkoosh added the commissioners are pleased that Gov. Tom Wolf signed an executive order on Wednesday which gives the state the ability to move medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and personal protective equipment from communities that don’t have as much need to communities that may have higher need.
“We are grateful that that flexibility has been made available to us. Hopefully, we won’t need it but it’s incredibly reassuring that it’s there if we do,” Arkoosh said.
The county’s community-based COVID-19 testing site at Temple University’s Ambler Campus in Upper Dublin will continue to be open through Friday, April 10. Officials said 4,457 people were tested at the site through April 7.
Sixty-four percent of the test results have been returned and revealed that about 19-percent of the individuals tested positive, according to officials, down from a previous high of 21-percent.
“We had been ticking up there. We got up to 21-percent for the prior two days but now we’re back at 19, so hopefully that means that maybe this is our plateau. We should see what the next few days bring,” Arkoosh said.
The site will provide testing by appointment only through Friday.
The link to register for a test appointment is available at www.montcopa. org/COVID-19 as well as at the county’s official social media accounts.
Individuals who do not have access to the Internet or do not have an email address can call 610-6313000 at 8 a.m. daily to register for a testing appointment that day.
The commissioners thanked The Community Ambulance Association of Ambler, Temple University and its police, Upper Dublin Township officials and the Pennsylvania National Guard for assisting in the operation of the testing site since March 20.
“Even once we’ve reached our peak, which I don’t believe we have, but even once we have and are on our way back down in terms of number of new cases, we would continue to see maybe even an increase in deaths for a little while longer.”
- Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Val Arkoosh