Most of the state’s coronavirus deaths are in nursing or personal care facilities

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

Allegheny County reported 12 additional deaths Thursday, but officials said that doesn’t reflect a jump in the number of coronavirus deaths overnight — it reflects a delay in deaths being added to the system.

In a statement, Allegheny County Health Department said it is working on a graph that will reflect deaths by date of death, which will be added to the dashboard of information it releases daily once complete.

Among local counties, there have now been 925 cases and 38 deaths in Allegheny, 60 cases and three deaths in Fayette, 73 cases and one death in Washington and 240 cases and 13 deaths in Westmoreland.

Statewide, there were 1,245 new cases of the virus Thursday for a total of 27,735. There were 60 deaths from Wednesday to Thursday, bringing total deaths related to the virus to 707.

In nursing and personal care homes statewide, there are 3,290 resident cases of COVID-19 and 394 cases among employees at 306 distinct facilities in 34 counties.

Out of the state’s 707 total deaths, 365 have occurred among residents from nursing or personal care facilities, according to the state Department of Health.

In Allegheny County, 18 facilities are affected and 121 residents and 34 employees have tested positive. There have been 26 deaths from those facilities.

In Fayette, there is one facility affected where three residents tested positive and one died. No employees have contracted the virus.

In Washington, one facility is affected where one employee has tested positive. There have been no deaths.

In Westmoreland County, four facilities are involved and there have been 51 residents who have tested positive in addition to 19 employees. According to the DOH, all 13 of the county’s deaths have been related to one of these facilities.

The DOH also released data on the gender breakdown amongst coronavirus patients. More than 14,500 of the cases have affected women, which is 52% of those who have tested positive, and more than 12,700 of the cases have affected men, which is 46%. In some instances, the DOH states that gender was not reported.

More women have been stricken with the coronavirus, but more men have died in Pennsylvania of the illness. There have been 305 women and 397 men who have died of the virus. There were five deaths reported to the DOH in which gender was not part of the report.

The DOH also released data Thursday based on regions. In Southwestern Pennsylvania, there have been 1,719 cases. By contrast, on the southeastern side of the state there have been 16,856 positive cases of the virus.

Allegheny County health and emergency services departments have asked residents to reduce the amount of smoke and air pollution produced by open burning during the COVID-19 crisis.

In most — but not all — county municipalities, recreational burning of clean, dry wood is legal, but officials are asking residents to voluntarily refrain from recreational burning.

“With more people at home due to the pandemic, we have seen a significant increase in recreational burning,” Dr. Debra Bogen, ACHD director, said. “The resulting smoke reduces local air quality and for our neighbors and friends with chronic diseases such as asthma or COPD, local burns can trigger the need for more medication, emergency medical visits and deterioration of the chronic conditions.”

Coronavirus poses threats to people with a history of heart or respiratory illness, and open burning adds to that burden, ACHD states. Smoke can increase an individual’s susceptibility to the virus and can also decrease a COVID-19-infected individual’s ability to fight the virus and worsen their symptoms.  

“Help us help you,” said Chief Matt Brown, Director of Allegheny County Emergency Services. “We are entering the spring brush and wildfire season, which adds to the threat of a controlled burn becoming an uncontrolled burn.”

As in other frontline careers, fire departments are adjusting operations to protect their members while still serving communities. The voluntary ban on burning can assist with that.

For more information on the county’s open burning regulations, visit https://j.mp/2wFVzEU.