Wolf orders sharing of resources
Governor to reallocate supplies to areas most affected by virus
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Because of the uneven distribution of coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania and the uneven distribution of what's necessary to deal with them, Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday ordered that a reallocation system be established to ensure that the necessary supplies and equipment get to where they are wanted.
"Combating a pandemic means we all have to work together, and that means we need to make the best use of our medical assets to ensure the places that need them most have them," Wolf said in a news release.
The movement may be toward high-population areas where, despite lots of resources, infection numbers are stressing the health care systems or to low population areas where there may be relatively few resources to deal with what's happening, Wolf said during the state's daily webcast on the coronavirus.
The outbreak is heaviest in the southeast, in Philadelphia and its "collar counties," and, more recently, in the northeast, including the counties of Luzerne, Lehigh and Monroe, state officials said.
"We're trying to ensure we take a scarce set of resources and make sure we're deploying it in areas where we need it the most," Wolf said in answer to a reporter's question. "We need to be open to this kind of coordination."
Some hospital systems have been shifting material already to meet internal needs, but the new order "will help us further mobilize," Wolf said.
The 40-hospital UPMC system is one of those that have been shifting resources as needed.
"Everything is distributed and shared among all our facilities," UPMC spokeswoman Danielle Sampsell said in an email Wednesday.
'Control tower' approach
The state's order reflects a new "control tower" approach that is being taken by the federal government, as discussed Tuesday in a call with federal officials, Wolf said Wednesday.
The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency will handle the resource reallocation, according to the news release.
The order requires that "private, public and quasi-public health care providers and facilities, as well as manufacturers, distributors and suppliers of PPE, pharmaceuticals and other medical resources located within the commonwealth, submit current inventory quantities of PPE, pharmaceuticals and other medical resources to PEMA within five days," the news release states.
The order also requires that health care providers report on their COVID-19 needs to PEMA.
PEMA will arrange with other state agencies to reimburse facilities for what the give up, according to the news release.
Coupled with the resource reallocation order, the Department of Health on Wednesday launched a hospital "dashboard" on its website that shows for each county how many adult ICU beds, medical-surgical beds, air-isolation room beds are available, how many ventilators are in use for COVID-19 and for other reasons and how many ventilators are available.
Blair County has 58 available ICU beds, 167 available med-surg beds, and 18 available air-isolation beds, along with two ventilators in use for COVID-19 patients, 10 in use for other patients and 38 available.
Bedford County has four available ICU beds, four available air-isolation beds and nine available ventilators; Cambria has 21 available ICU beds, three available air-isolation beds and 16 available ventilators; Centre has eight available ICU beds, 11 available air-isolation beds and 12 available ventilators; Clearfield has 15 available ICU beds, 19 available air-isolation beds and 23 available ventilators; and Huntingdon has three available ICU beds and four available ventilators, according to the dashboard.
Curve flattening
The state's new-case number rose 6 percent Wednesday, a day after it rose 7 percent -- after two days in which the number of new cases declined.
Still, the state is no longer seeing the "exponential growth" that Health Secretary Rachel Levine talked about a couple weeks ago, Wolf said.
The infection growth curve is "flattening," he said.
That flattening could help prevent the number of patients from overwhelming the state's hospital system, but it's not a sign that it's OK to become complacent or to let up on mitigation efforts imposed by the state, Wolf said.
"We (still) need to buckle down," he said.
The DoH is looking to compile statistics on coronavirus infections by race, after recent reports that the percentage of black patients and black patient deaths are far higher than the percentage of black people in the general population.
"We know there are challenges in health equity for African Americans and Hispanic people in Pennsylvania and nationally," Levine said, citing issues related to economic opportunity, nutrition, the environment, transportation and access to health care.
Such disparities "are more significant now," given the pandemic, she said.
"We'll be working to ensure they won't influence the ability of someone to get the care they need," she said.
Local death
The Cambria County resident whose death from COVID-19 was reported Wednesday by the state was Louis Blum, 87, of Dysart.
He died of respiratory failure at UPMC Altoona, said Blair County Coroner Patty Ross.
He had been in the hospital for about 10 days, Ross said.
She doesn't know how he became infected, she said.
Gibbons Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.
By the numbers
New cases in Blair County: 0
Cumulative cases in Blair County: 6
New cases in contiguous counties: Bedford 0; Cambria 2; Centre 2; Clearfield 0; Huntingdon 1
Cumulative cases in contiguous counties: Bedford 4; Cambria 9 (1 death); Centre 57; Clearfield 7; Huntingdon 6
Total cumulative cases in regional counties: 89
Cumulative regional deaths: 1
New cases statewide: 1,680, up 6 percent
Cumulative cases statewide: 16,239, in all 67 counties
New deaths statewide: 70
Cumulative deaths statewide: 310
New negative tests statewide: 5,580
Cumulative negative tests statewide: 82,299
Samples taken at UPMC site in Altoona: The site was scheduling between 40 and 50 patients each day this week.