Coronavirus In Pennsylvania: Hospitals, Nursing Homes Warn Of Closures Amid COVID-19 Outbreak
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS/AP) — Hospitals, nursing homes and child care centers are asking Pennsylvania state government for more money to avoid closures amid a surge of coronavirus -related demands on staffing and equipment. The demands came as the new coronavirus continues to spread in Pennsylvania, with the state reporting more than 200 more cases and another death.
Meanwhile, more businesses are challenging Gov. Tom Wolf's order closing the physical locations of businesses determined to be "non-life-sustaining."
In the meantime, Wolf has ordered schools closed through at least April 6 and ordered 5.5 million people in the state's hardest-hit counties to stay home, other than going to work at a business that's still open or another errand involving health and safety.
A look at coronavirus-related developments in Pennsylvania:
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CASES
The state Department of Health on Tuesday reported more than 200 new cases, with the total to date of 930.
Allegheny County reported one more death, bringing the statewide total to at least seven. The victim was a woman in her late 70s and the county medical examiner was handling the case, the county said.
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LEGAL ACTIONS
Several more businesses have filed a legal challenge to Gov. Wolf's order closing the physical locations of businesses determined to be "non-life-sustaining."
A petition filed in Commonwealth Court seeks to have Wolf's shutdown order thrown out. The plaintiffs are a law firm, a laundromat, a timber company and a golf course, all of which appeared on the governor's initial list of businesses that were to shut down as of Thursday night.
The Wolf administration has since revised the list, relaxing its blanket closure of law offices and placing laundromats and timber companies on the "life-sustaining" list, allowing them to stay open.
But the lawsuit said Wolf "quite simply made up these categories and their terminology out of whole cloth," and alleges his shutdown order and subsequent revisions "caused mass confusion and disturbance throughout Pennsylvania."
Wolf has already beat back two other legal challenges to his authority to order businesses to close.
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HOSPITALS, NURSING HOMES AND CHILD CARE CENTERS
Hospitals, nursing homes and child care centers are pushing for emergency aid from state lawmakers and Wolf to help keep them afloat during the pandemic, and warning of closures without it.
There is a "legitimate, credible threat" that some hospitals, without financial support from either the federal government or the state government, will close, said Andy Carter, president and CEO of the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.
"It's the sheer scale of the COVID-19 outbreak unfolding now that has the healthcare community saying, 'we need government help,'" Carter said.
The fund would help hospitals build surge capacity, retrofit critical-care units for highly infectious COVID-19 patients, hire more clinicians, pay for housing, establish on-site childcare facilities for healthcare workers and purchase protective gear, Carter told reporters on a conference call.
He did not provide a dollar figure, but said "we know it's going to be an extraordinary amount to match the size of the potential surge of care that we will be providing."
Carter said hospitals are scrambling to obtain enough protective gear to meet demand. Some facilities could run out of masks and other equipment in a matter of days or even hours as they become flooded with COVID-19 patients, he said.
The federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump last week, provides approximately $1.5 billion additional Medicaid dollars for Pennsylvania, nursing home organizations say.
Two nursing home associations, LeadingAge PA and the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, and labor unions that help staff the homes requested help getting protective equipment, a 3% increase in reimbursement rates and a minimum sum of $290 million to nursing homes in emergency aid.
They also asked for emergency aid to offer paid sick leave to all staff who have exhausted their sick leave benefits.
Child care advocates said more than $100 million is needed to make up for the tuition and co-pays that the centers aren't collecting, and pass a law protecting the centers from coronavirus-related lawsuits.
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BUSINESS CLOSURES
Pennsylvania State police say troopers issued 27 warnings, but no citations, based on Wolf's directive that businesses deemed not life-sustaining close down their physical locations during the first day of enforcement on Monday.
The state police commissioner, Col. Robert Evanchick, said Tuesday that the overwhelming majority of people and businesses were complying voluntarily with the order.
Other forms of enforcement will follow the warnings if needed, Evanchick said.
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INTERSTATE REST STOPS REOPENING
Motorists of all types, not just truck drivers, are getting access to indoor facilities at 23 interstate rest stops across Pennsylvania.
The reopened indoor bathrooms are on interstates 79, 80, 81 and 84, the state Transportation Department said.
(Copyright 2020 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
