Delaware County now at ‘high risk’ with rise in COVID cases

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Delaware County is at high risk from COVID-19.

“As of Aug. 30, Delaware County is at a high-risk level of transmission due to the delta variant, the predominant strain across the country,” Delaware County Medical Advisor Dr. Lisa O’Mahony told Delaware County Council Wednesday night. “Infections, hospitalizations and death are increasing.”

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Delaware County has a 6.1 percent positivity rate and the incidence rate is 114 per 100,000.

“This represents a threefold increase in cases over the past six weeks,” O’Mahony said.

According to state Health Department data, Delaware County has 48,584 confirmed positive cases and 1,437 deaths related to the virus. There were 142 new confirmed cases on Tuesday and 122 on Monday.

Intensive care unit beds in Delaware County hospitals are 87 percent full, O’Mahony reported; however, the majority of those are not COVID-related.

“Delaware County has 116 staffed ICU beds – 91 are filled by non-COVID patients and 10 are filled by COVID patients,” she said, adding that these hospitals would be unable to absorb a new wave of COVID infections.

“Vaccine remains the best path out of the pandemic and everyone who is eligible should get a vaccine,” she added.

O’Mahony said the total vaccines administered in Delaware County have been 154,442.

This past Saturday, 164 vaccines were administered at the Delaware County Wellness Center in Yeadon as part of a back-to-school event.

All three vaccines – the one-dose Johnson & Johnson and the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna – are offered at the Yeadon wellness facility at 125 Chester Ave. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays. The homebound program is operating one day a week.

O’Mahony said the county also continues to provide vaccine to the George W. Hill Correctional Facility and Fair Acres Geriatric Center.

“As demand increases, we are expanding testing at the Delaware County Wellness Center in collaboration with ChesPenn, offering PCR testing on Mondays and Wednesdays beginning after Labor Day,” she said.

O’Mahony said there must be an emphasis on masking, social distancing and getting vaccinated, especially as the season changes into fall and winter, when the virus is more susceptible.

“We’re at a place where we have to be really thoughtful about just getting vaccinated, taking all the precautions, all the mitigation efforts that we can because this Delta variant is so contagious,” she said.

Looking at where the county is now compared to where it was last September, county Councilwoman Elaine Paul Schaefer said she was really concerned.

“It makes me nervous,” she said.

O’Mahony responded, “I think this is a moment where pe

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia RN Sally Poliwoda prepares to give Alejandro Castillo,12, a rising seventh grade student at Penn Wood Middle School a vaccine at the school’s clinic Tuesday. (PETE BANNAN- DAILY TIMES)

ople should consider that getting immunized means that our kids are going to have a better chance of having a healthy start to their school year too because the more people who are immunized in a community will, of course, decrease the amount of spread. So, anyone who is eligible needs to think about getting a vaccine to protect the kids as their going back to school.”

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