Posted on 06/25/2020 7:04:17 AM PDT by lightman
Employees who likely don’t know they have COVID-19 are carrying it into long term care facilities in Lebanon County and infecting residents.
While that leads to a high case count for the facilities, it also reflects the prevalence of COVID-19 in the larger community, according to state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine.
Levine said a “combination of community spread” and long term care cases are responsible for the recent high rate of increase in Lebanon County. That has made Lebanon the only county in the state that hasn’t been cleared to enter the green reopening status.
“The nursing homes and the long term care facilities reflect the prevalence in the county, because it is the asymptomatic or presymptomatic staff that are the only ones entering the facilities who, unfortunately, carry it in,” she said.
That contradicts claims of Republican officials in Lebanon County, who contend the problem involves the facilities but not the rest of the community. They further place the blame on Levine and Gov. Tom Wolf, saying they failed to take the necessary steps to protect nursing homes residents, who are the most vulnerable to COVID-19.
Lebanon officials said last week’s decision to keep the county in the yellow reopening phase was based on politics rather than public health.
“As far as we are concerned the governor has lost all credibility regarding every aspect of his shutdown, and deserves only to be ignored. Lebanon Countians, and Pennsylvanians as a whole, should treat this edict with the same respect that he has treated all of us, absolutely none,” said a letter signed by the county’s four state lawmakers.
The Wolf administration has said the decision to hold back Lebanon was based solely on the data.
However, Levine last week blamed the troubling data on county officials, saying “Lebanon County’s partisan, politically driven decision to ignore public health experts and reopen prematurely is having severe consequences for the health and safety of county residents.”
Lebanon County Commissioners were among the commissioners in at least two counties that passed resolutions defying the Wolf administration’s phased reopening plan, saying the county would move forward on its own. Officials in several Republican-led counties voiced rebellion and in some cases supported businesses that re-opened in defiance of Wolf.
When the state made the decision on June 19, Lebanon County had 1,226 cases. That included a rate of 144 new cases per 100,000 residents over the previous two weeks — well above the threshold for moving to green, and a rate that suggested the highest rate of increase in the state.
As of early Thursday, Lebanon County had 1,278 cases, with long term care residents and staff accounting for 235, according to the county’s own data tracker, which relies on information drawn from the state.
COVID-19 infections have raged in nursing homes all over Pennsylvania and the United States. Lebanon, with seven long term care facilities according to the county’s data tracker, has no unusual concentration of homes.
The county’s largest employer, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, is the Bell & Evans chicken processing plant, with 1,800 employees. According to the Inquirer, some employees and community leaders say the plant has been a source of spread and the company hasn’t done enough to stop it. Many plant employees live in the City of Lebanon, which has a high concentration of cases. Bell & Evans, however, told the Inquirer it had gone several weeks without a new case.
The state won’t reveal the number of cases within meat processing plants, which have been associated with outbreaks around the country.
On Wednesday, Levine said the state did a “deep dive” on Lebanon’s data over the weekend. She further said her department has been in contact with county officials and is putting in place a plan to improve testing and contact tracing in the county.
Levine, who was answering questions during an unrelated event on Wednesday, provided no specific time estimate of when Lebanon might qualify to go green.
I am violating my own rule that a picture of Dr. (Dickless) "Rachel" Levine should be accompanied by appropriate eyewash aka a picture of our FLOTUS for only two reasons:
1) The image is small.
2) The she/he/it is wearing a mask.
Some faces should always be masked even when the planedemic "ends".
Pennsylvania Ping!
Please ping me with articles of interest.
FReepmail me to be added to the list.
There’s only ONE thing this is about—— PAYBACK!!!!!!
Man you just ruined my four hour problem.
After all he/she moved MOM from a nursing home to a hotel...during the early stage of this “VIRUS EVENT”.. Seems Levine knew something about the Nursing Home being a dangerous place to reside...smh...
This Health director and the Gov. of PA. are both a mistake..wake up voters...We need to make sure DJT takes the State of Pennsylvania in Nov....lets do a Nov. 2016 repeat...
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