State issues guidelines for essential businesses

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

The weekend brought more grim news from the Pennsylvania Department of Health as more than 3,000 more residents tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to 11,501.

There have now been 150 deaths from the illness in the state, which is a rate of about 1.3%.

Across the country, there are now nearly 305,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and there have been 7,616 deaths related to the virus. Pennsylvania has remained among the top 10 states with the most cases for some time. The last time the figures were compared by Johns Hopkins University, the state had the eighth most patients in the United States.

In Allegheny County, there have been four deaths and 605 people have tested positive.

Over the weekend, the county announced the two most recent deaths — a person in their 90s who had been hospitalized and a person in their 80s who was also hospitalized — and extended condolences to their families and friends.

In Pennsylvania, most of the patients hospitalized are 65 or older, and most of the deaths have occurred in that age range as well, according to the health department.

In Fayette County, there are 27 cases and there has been one death.

Washington County now has 50 cases and Westmoreland is reporting 147 confirmed cases. Neither county has reported a death.

There are only two counties of the state’s 67 that have no reported positive tests.

On Sunday, Dr. Rachel Levine, secretary of the state department of health, signed an order providing direction for maintaining and cleaning buildings for businesses that are authorized to maintain in-person operations as life-sustaining businesses.

According to the Building Safety Measures order, “Cleaning, disinfecting and other maintenance and security services performed by building service employees are critical to protecting the public health by reducing COVID-19 infections in the commonwealth.”

“Based upon the manner of COVID-19’s spread in the commonwealth and in the world, and its danger to Pennsylvanians, I have determined that the appropriate disease control measure is the direction of building safety measures as outlined in this order to prevent and control the spread of disease,” Levine said.

The measures outlined in the order are for owners of buildings of at least 50,000 square feet used for commercial, industrial or other enterprises, including but not limited to facilities for warehousing, manufacturing, commercial offices, airports, grocery stores, universities, colleges, government, hotels and residential buildings with at least 50 units.

The order, which goes into effect today, outlines new protocols including:

• Clean and disinfect high-touch areas routinely in accordance with CDC guidelines in spaces that are accessible to customers, tenants, or other individuals.

• Maintain pre-existing cleaning protocols established in the facility for all other areas of the building.

• Ensure the facility has a sufficient number of employees to perform the above protocols effectively and in a manner that ensures the safety of occupants and employees.

• Ensure that the facility has a sufficient number of security employees to control access, maintain order, and enforce social distancing of at least 6 feet, provided the security employees are otherwise responsible for such enforcement.