Pennsylvania’s Department of Health Wednesday released some rather grim statistics confirming that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is particularly deadly when it strikes populations of older individuals, many of whom often have underlying health conditions.
The health department released data that breaks down the number of COVID-19 cases associated with a total of 297 nursing homes by county. Individual nursing homes aren’t identified within it, however several local outbreaks of the illness have been reported in senior care facilities, including one in Lower Macungie Township that is the source of 40 percent of the deaths from coronavirus in Lehigh County.
As of Wednesday, ten residents of Genesis Healthcare Lehigh Center had died from COVID-19, according to published media reports. In Northampton County, it has been reported that two residents of Gracedale in Upper Nazareth Township have died from it.
A total of 211 cases have been reported in 10 different Northampton County nursing homes, the state reported Wednesday. Nine of those cases have been fatal.
In Lehigh County, a total of 125 cases have been confirmed in senior care facilities along with 10 fatalities.
Statewide, the Department of Health confirmed that 3,316 COVID-19 cases can be traced to nursing homes. That caseload represents approximately 12.5 percent of the total number of confirmed cases in the state, which as of Wednesday stood at 26,490.
The percentage of deaths caused by COVID-19 in nursing homes is much higher, however, than the percentage that has occurred in the general population.
According to the Department of Health, 324 of Pennsylvania’s 647 deaths from COVID-19 have been in nursing homes, which works out to be more than 50 percent.
The hardest-hit county in terms of the number of nursing home deaths associated with COVID-19 is Montgomery, which as of Wednesday had reported 60 deaths to the state.
The novel coronavirus is particularly dangerous when it strikes aged populations because they typically lack the immune systems to fight off the pneumonia that can develop from it, however, the disease is also capable of killing young people with no underlying health conditions; a fact public health officials continue to stress.
The new data from the Department of Health does not identify an average age among the nursing home residents that have been diagnosed with and/or died from COVID-19, nor does it include a breakdown of cases by gender. However, it has been well-documented that the disease typically affects men more than women; an epidemiological observation scientists are still researching to help explain.
One theory is that men are less likely to seek medical care promptly, or to take precautions to safeguard their health, as compared with women.
On Wednesday, both Gov. Tom Wolf and state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine announced a new order by Levine they said will help safeguard the health of Pennsylvanians who could potentially be exposed to COVID-19 in business or work environments. Among the order’s mandates is one that all frontline retail workers as well as customers in grocery and other stores wear masks or face coverings to help slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. That order is effective Sunday, April 19 at 8 p.m.
