Montco sees positive trend of fewer deaths
EAGLEVILLE » Montgomery County officials reported seven more deaths from the coronavirus on Tuesday and announced there is a new testing opportunity available in the Lansdale area.
The latest seven deaths from COVID-19 bring the county’s death toll to 536 since March 7, when the first two cases of the virus were identified in the county. The latest reported deaths included individuals who ranged in age from 83 to 98, county Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh said during a Tuesday news briefing.
To date, 289 females and 247 males have died from the virus in
the county. Arkoosh added 469 of the total 536 COVID-19 deaths were individuals who resided in longterm care facilities, comprising about 88 percent of the total deaths.
The 536 total deaths were “confirmed positive” COVID-19 cases through the use of lab tests.
Arkoosh added 151 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 53 new positive cases of the virus on Tuesday, bringing the county’s total number of cases to 6,015 since March 7. Ten of the latest individuals to test positive resided in long-term care facilities in the county, one was an inmate at the county jail and 42 were other residents in the community, according to Arkoosh, who was joined at the daily briefing by fellow commissioners Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr. and Joseph C. Gale.
The new positive cases included 19 males and 34 females who ranged in age from 14 to 98 and at least six of the individuals are known to be hospitalized. The individuals were residents of 27 municipalities and to date, all 62 of the county’s municipalities are home to individuals with COVID-19.
In addition to several testing sites already up and running in the county, officials announced there is a new testing opportunity in the Lansdale area.
The new drive-thru testing site is available at the CVS Pharmacy at 840 South Valley Forge Road.
“This site will conduct testing at no cost. Health insurance is not required but will be billed if you have it,” Arkoosh explained, adding the site is utilizing a self-swab test.
For more information and to make an appointment, residents can visit www.cvs.com and click on “COVID-19 Resources.”
Arkoosh, referring to county data compiled from COVID-19 tests at the community-based testing sites since March, said the number of individuals testing positive has been declining. Arkoosh maintained the downward trend is a result of citizens practicing mitigation measures such as social distancing to prevent the spread of the disease.
Between April 16 and May 14, a drive-thru testing site at the central campus of the Montgomery County Community College in Whitpain tested 5,606 individuals. As of Tuesday, officials had received results for 5,464 individuals and 757 of the individuals tested positive, representing a 14 percent positivity rate. That’s a reduction from the highest positive rate of 24 percent that was recorded during the first week of April.
“We’ve really made a lot of improvement in this past week to 10 days. We are getting there,” said Arkoosh, referring to meeting some of the goals of Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to reopen counties and ease COVID-19 mitigation measures. “I continue to ask you to stay the course, to stay at home, to be safe when you’re not at home, and be respectful of every single person in our community.
“When you go out just consider that you or someone that is carrying the virus has no symptoms but might be able to infect someone else. Please follow the guidance to wear a mask, to keep your hands clean as much as possible with soap and water or hand sanitizer and to follow the social distancing guidance,” Arkoosh added.
Gale, the lone Republican on the three-member commissioners’ board, called Arkoosh’s statements about social distancing and mask wearing “hypocritical,” claiming that from the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the county on March 7 until May 10, when fellow commissioner Lawrence tested positive for the virus, that the commissioners and county staff did not practice social distancing or wear masks.
“On a routine basis, 11 of us would be crammed into a small conference room, only inches away from each other. No one in the room ever wore masks, gloves, or stayed six-feet apart. We would work together like this day after day, hour after hour,” said Gale, who has repeatedly criticized Wolf and his Democratic colleagues, claiming they have “unnecessarily prolonged this shutdown.”
“I have never told people how to behave. I have been clear that I do not believe in a totalitarian-style, nanny state governmentknows-best that tells citizens how to live. I trust the people of Montgomery County and Pennsylvania to live their lives in a manner they believe is best for themselves and their families,” Gale added.
Arkoosh did not respond to Gale’s statement at the news briefing.
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 Tuesday, 94 of the facilities reported positive
COVID-19 cases among residents and staff. Specifically, officials reported there are 1,716 cases among residents of the facilities and 625 cases among staff at the facilities, for a total of 2,341 positive individuals.
Arkoosh said state health officials on Tuesday began releasing information about reported positive COVID-19 cases among residents and staff and the number of deaths in specific long-term care facilities statewide.
“There is a spreadsheet and you can check it by county and within the county listing are the individual long-term care facilities. That is now available to the public,” Arkoosh said.
Residents can find the information about individual Montgomery County nursing homes on the state health department’s website at www.health.pa.gov
Arkoosh reported the county continues to have beds available at the county’s nine hospitals. About 275 patients are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in the county and about 25 percent of the patients require ventilators.
“We’ve really made a lot of improvement in this past week to 10 days. We are getting there.”
- Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh
“I have been clear that I do not believe in a totalitarian-style, nanny state governmentknows-best that tells citizens how to live.”
- Montgomery County Commissioner Joseph C. Gale