PITTSBURGH (Newsradio 1020 KDKA) - Beaver County is on the state's COVID-19 county watch list with positive cases sitting at 5.3% out of all of the test results. County Commissioner Jack Manning told the KDKA Radio Morning Show the county numbers are being still affected by nursing homes.
"A few weeks ago we were down under 5%. Things looked good, then we jumped up to 5.7, 5.3. Our numbers are still being skewed by nursing homes. About 65% of the number in the positive test results we have are still related to nursing homes in our area," he said.
Manning said there have been 96 deaths in the county related to COVID-19. He explained, "Almost exclusively all of those deaths have been attributed to the nursing home situation."
"We are seeing an uptick though in, just like the rest of the state and Allegheny County for that matter, with the 19-34-year-olds testing positive. And we did have a little bit of an outbreak a couple of weeks ago with some high school kids, high school age student athletes testing positive," he said. "So that made us creep back up over the 5% benchmark the state has set for being in the safe zone."
In Beaver County, Brighton Rehab and Wellness Center, where 80 resident have died since the COVID-19 outbreak, has been in the news for months due to the high number of deaths at the facility.
U.S. Representative Conor Lamb has called for an investigation into Pennsylvania's oversight of the coronavirus outbreak at Brighton Rehab and Wellness Center in Beaver County.
A state Department of Health report says inspectors found staff without masks, failed to use social distancing and improperly disinfected items.
The report also says Brighton failed to maintain infection prevention and control, places the residents in immediate jeopardy.
The facility has also been accused of administering hydroxychloroquine to residents without state approval, something the medical director at Brighton, Dr. David Thimons, has denied. He said the state granted consent and approval during a meeting in April and that they had consent forms from residents or legal guardians.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said his office is looking into “conditions and practices” at the Beaver County facility.
The Wold administration in August said the state is continuing efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus in long-term care facilities. Dr. Rachel Levine, Secretary of Health, said "Throughout this pandemic, the Department of Health and our partners have worked tirelessly to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, especially in vulnerable communities like long-term care facilities. Our ongoing mitigation efforts are working to stop this virus before spreading further and we will not stop as long as COVID-19 remains a threat in our communities. We will continue to do everything in our power to provide support and resources to facilities for their staff and residents to ensure they are safe from this dangerous virus."
In July, she told the KDKA Radio Morning Show that the number of cases in long-term care facilities "is directly correlated to the prevalence of COVID-19 in the county where it was located."
On Tuesday, Governor Tom Wolf renewed the states COVID-19 disaster declaration for another 90 days stating, “We are going to continue to combat the health and economic effects of COVID-19, and the renewal of my disaster declaration will provide us with resources and support needed for this effort.”
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