partners we're gonna collaborate with hospitals and health systems and so we have a really an excellent plan from our staff and we'll be releasing that later this week. We have several questions from WK K. on reopening with North Central PA expected to go into the yellow phase next Friday, which factors metrics and timeline will be used to determine when that part of the state becomes Green, who's in charge of making that decision well. so right now, we're concentrating on which County and regions will go from Red to yellow but you're right. we'll be watching the. Making sure that there are no outbreaks that there's no clusters of Co of 19 or if they are that we're able to contain them really well, we wanna make sure that hospitals and health systems have robust capacity to take care of patients and so we're working on that now as we counties do go and regions do go from Red to yellow. we'll be starting to think of what the next step would be and as always the governor makes the final decisions is it conceivable that some parts of the state might advance to the. Face of reopening While others are still in the Red face, it's kinda hard to speculate that a lot depends upon the the situation on the ground and in terms of the spread of covet 19, in rural areas and suburban areas, and of course in the large metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia Philadelphia City in Philadelphia County. So it's very hard for me to determine that and finally on the Green stage. Do you know regulations for? In the event that we move to the Green stage down the road so I don't have granular detail on that, but we're gonna be working on that in the future right now as the announcement will be on Friday about which county's go to yellow, we are concentrating on that aspect of our plan. This question is from Fox 50 - Six nursing homes continue to be hard hit by the virus. What can we do to make it safer for patients and workers? Well? I think that that's a excuse me an excellent. And we're very concerned about seniors in long-term care living facilities such as nursing homes and personal care homes and anyone living in congregates settings. we have had a nursing home and personal care home guidance that we have put out. we have revised that there have been guidance from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services federally, and we're working to make sure all the nursing homes are following that guidance. we have jumped upon clusters and cases and clusters in those facilities. with infectious disease consultations and guidance we've had teaching in terms of how to use personal protective equipment. we have pushed out PPE personal protective equipment to those facilities. In fact, we had a a large push in the last 24 hours of of of N 90, -, five masks and other PE to those facilities and we have consulted with E of to do even more infectious disease consultations where more care is needed then we've had. Partnership with the Pennsylvania National Guard and their medical personnel who actually go into nursing homes and to help those facilities, but they are very challenged. We're continuing to see more cases and tragically more death and our team was talking when I walked in the door about what else we can do to help nursing homes personal care homes and long-term care living facilities. They're their patients and residents and their staff. we'll be looking at other States to see what they're doing and what any any any other National examples. so we're gonna do absolutely. Everything we can to help those vulnerable populations. another question on nursing homes from the Scranton Times over the past two weeks, the number of cases in nursing and personal care homes has remained alarming, for example, almost half of Lackawanna County's new cases over that time frame came from those facilities. Why do you think these facilities continue to struggle so much to contain the disease well, as we've been saying all along they're very vulnerable So if if a case develops in one of the facilities because of the nature of. Care and many of the nursing homes and other personal care homes. it tends to spread it's very hard to control in addition of predominantly there are seniors 65 and older in those facilities. seniors are more at risk for Covet 19. There are many patients with comorbidities or other medical conditions such as heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and that makes them more prone to getting covet 19 and having a more serious severe response. 19 so in Pennsylvania, it's a very challenging situation as it has been in every other state, as well as in many other countries and so we're gonna be working on it every day and do everything we possibly can to help them. Our next question is from PBS 39. Is there any clear idea why there was such a rise in cases in Northampton County yesterday with 136 new cases, and we see that the number of deaths has gone from 55 yesterday to 85 today, matching the figures put out. A County corner, what prompted the sharp increase in the state's death total for Northampton County well first in terms of the increase in the number of cases our staff has been looking into that, and I think there was a release of a large amount of of case information and positive and test results from some of the commercial laboratories and hospitals and so we'd love to have that release to be in a in a daily fashion but it doesn't always come back from the commercial laboratories like that. we call it a data. And so that increases the number of cases in a way A A a a synchrony synchronous way in terms of the of the deaths as we've been saying we had a reconciliation of of all of our data from our Ned system, our regular data reporting system, but also our electronic death reporting system, which is through vital records. We reconcile that data and so from a number of counties we the number increased and we did become much more in line with what the corner. Had been reporting we've another question from the Scranton Times. the state issued a revised process to reopen PA plan on Saturday morning. The plan eliminated the reliance on regional health districts. Why did this happen and is the state no longer taking a regional approach to reopening Now, we are taking a regional approach and we have put out our health care regions is an example of what those regions look like, but the governor has said all along that we're not going to have to be beholden and follow any specific Schema. So it was a really good example. But we we're not we don't have to follow what those regions are, but we are going to take still take a regional approach. It's it might not be those specific designations from Capital wire with regard to the latest reconciliation in virus death totals. Could you break out how many occurred since yesterday's report and then how many occurred during which weeks the reconciliation covers? Additionally, can you can you from where can you tell from where most of the re reconcile deaths were reported? Excuse me so I don't have all of that granular data. I don't have the specifics about which what number came from our ND's reporting system in the last day and what number came from the vital records electronic death reporting system. We can do that type of of an analysis and be able to give that type of data. This question is from WTAE, The Armstrong County Commissioners issued a former request today to the governor's office to be excluded from the Southwest region because of their case counts. Commissioners there feel they are more suited to be in the Northwest region and ready to reopen sooner is the governor willing to consider these requests and is there any plan to adjust the regional approach. Well, we are looking at that information right now. We're always pleased to to get correspondents from County commissioners and from the Legislature about these issues and read and consider them in the end. The government will make his decision. This question is from WFMZ. We understand that the state's Wilkes-Barre location is testing all symptomatic people who live in the Northeast, but for many people that can be an. Or more away, does the possibility that people are unable to get to that location or unwilling to travel this far post any problems for ensuring our regional testing data are geographically representative no matter where we put a Mass testing location. there's always going to be challenges driving and getting to that site. our team and P's team thought very hard about that, but decided that this was the best place to put the site actually since our discussion several. Ago, the numbers have increased to what pretty much what we expected, and we're very pleased about that. We have a question from Lehigh Valley live on nursing homes. How are nursing homes and long-term care facilities reporting their code, 19 cases and deaths to the state. How and when is this information added to the state's Cove, 19 dashboard and to have facilities refused to provide case information to the state. facilities have not refused to provide case information and they put it into a meds or our usual data reporting system and that usually is updated. I I. Daily for the dashboard from the Butler Eagle, there was another spike in case today and we've seen ups and downs over the past couple of weeks. How will these spikes attributed to data collection affect a region or county's chances in reopening? Well, we didn't have a spike in cases today, we did have a an increase in deaths due to the reasons that I've explained before, but we're looking over time and and looking at the framework over at least two weeks. To look at the data for any County or any region, so one day's change would not influence that this question is from W N E P, A viewer asks how many deaths cases of the seasonal flu have we had this year compared to this time last year are all flu cases being added to our total as covid- 19 cases well, so certainly the flu cases are not being added to the Covet 19 cases, it's a completely different virus in a different situation and so. Completely separate we did look at that data so we had A hundred and 30000 lab confirmed cases of influenza this year and we had 102 deaths, but again, Covet 19 is a completely different virus. This is a novel or new Corona virus, No one has had when this came out had immunity to this virus. studies have shown that it is more contagious than the flu and it is More lethal than the flu probably at least 10 times more. so maybe maybe between 10 and 20 times more lethal than the flu from the numbers that we have seen in just two months in Pennsylvania and nationally, you can see the risk from Covet 19. We have a couple of questions on the Brighton Rehabilitation Nursing Home in Beaver County first from WPXI numbers jumped in Beaver County, 59 to 65 all coming from the same zip code where Brighton rehab is located. Can you confirm the cases? From there and as the state working with Brighton to bring those numbers down well so I can't confirm this specific location within the zip code of where the cases were from, but certainly the situation at the Brighton Nursing home has been extremely challenging. and we're doing absolutely everything we can to help that home. We actually have installed a temporary miniature to help the facility we have contracted with the and brought in our consultant Eri to do infection control education we have pushed out personal. Protective equipment We have more than daily phone calls and so we are concentrating on that nursing home doing everything that we can to protect the vulnerable residents and staff from the Post Gazette on Brighton the Brighton Rehabilitation Nursing Home in be Beaver County now has 58 deaths and 240 - eight positive cases in the building, but the state Department of Health continues to say that they have not done anything wrong. that led to this. how can that be the case with so many deaths and more than half the residents in the building testing positive. I'm not gonna really be able to give. More detail about that in terms of what they did wrong, it's certainly has been an extremely challenging situation. we are working with them again. We've installed the temporary miniature. We have our infectious disease consultants working with them every day and we will do again everything we possibly can for the residents and staff there. Our next question is from PennLive Other States such as Florida and Arkansas have allowed horse racing to continue without fans since most of the essential personnel needed to operate. Races already live at the track has or will consider allowing racing to resume, perhaps without spectators either statewide or once counties with tracks. enter the yellow phase really don't have any answer for that question and I'd refer that to the governor's Office from W B R E and W Y o U as county's reopen will elderly and as at risk workers be required to return to work and will the state offer any guidance to physicians about doctor's notes for these individuals to stay home for a period of time. Well, we're gonna we want. One that can stay home and work remotely to do that in terms of of of places that that have to be open to to be able to continue their business. We need to take that on an individual basis in regards to the age and vulnerabilities of specific workers and so that's gonna be part of that process as we go from Red to yellow working through all those specific details. Our next question is from the Tribune Review. Have you been looking into the new data out of a Yale study? Indicating that covid-, 19 related deaths likely exceed what has been reported so far is the Department taking these findings into account and are there any plans to reexamine pneumonia and influenza deaths that occurred in February or early March. so I haven't seen the study, but I'll be pleased to take a look at it and I'm sure our staff in our epidemiologist are pleased to look at any study and to kind of take another look at our data. We have another question from The post. Gazette on data the state continues to have daily more than 1000 new positive cases as a state analyzed who makes up these cases now that we're six weeks into the lockdown are these new positive cases, mostly nursing homes, First responders other essential workers, or is there evidence that people still are contracting the Corona virus by say going to the grocery store or taking a walk or something else We are still permitted to do huh really all of the above but it depends upon the location. so, as we've been saying there are regions and counties in Pennsylvania that have had much less community spread than other regions and counties and so that's gonna form the basis of the governor's plan to go from Red to yellow and eventually from yellow to Green in the most hard-hit areas such as the Southeast then there is still evidence of community spread, but the question does bring up a very important point. we are seeing many new cases. In long-term, care living facilities and those type of congregates settings as well in health as well as health care workers and they're you know very challenging vulnerable populations. This question is from WTAE Governor Wolf said yesterday that there will be a lot of subjective decisions regarding opening up regions or counties. Can you talk about some of those factors you're looking at when deciding whether or not to open up the County, particularly as it relates to Southwest PA mm hmm. so we are looking at. Different factors as the governor has said, and I have repeated in my in my press conferences. one is that quantitative metric that we've discussed a lot but others would be the ability for us to work with our partners on testing to work with them on contact tracing about with about the ability of the health care system and those counties and regions to be able to deal with patients with Covet 19. if there's a Custer or an outbreak and Are number of different factors that will go into the final decisions in our recommendations to the governor and then the governor's final decisions. we have a question from Fox 40 - three about dentists. We know there is a new policy for hospitals and elective surgeries in place our dentists affected by the rule and our dentists offices allowed to reopen to see patients so the dental officers were not impacted by the rule in terms of elective procedures for hospitals and ambulatory surgical facilities. but there has been new. Guidance that either has come out or will be coming out in the near future from the Daily American our nursing home as nursing home cases continue to rise. while the Department released the names of the homes were positive cases occurred. We've been discussing the pros and cons of that. I know that the that the media and the public want to know those names. We also want to take in consideration the the the the privacy of the of the residents and staff in those nursing homes and so it is a balance. We're still discussing that possibility, we have a question from W JAC about cases in our state correctional facilities for counties that help House SCI facilities. How is the Department of Health taking into account the number of cases of facility might have with the county's total case count. For example, SCI Huntington has confirmed 23 cases between inmates and employees and Huntington County's total case number is 29. Is there a direct correlation with those numbers? I? Not exactly sure so instead of making a guess I'm gonna check back with our team so that we can give you accurate information about that question from the Altoona Mirror regarding contact tracing the electronic version from Apple and Google say it will be strictly voluntary. Could that be a problem? What if lots of infected people don't buy in well contact tracing by definition is voluntary. We have no legal authority to make people talk with us or to use that type of technology. but you know what I I believe. The governor does the Pennsylvanians wanna do the right thing. They wanna do the right thing for their families and for their communities and their counties and for Pennsylvania, and if part of that it is is working with our disease. Investigators working in terms of contact tracing using simple technology to be able to help us. We believe that Pennsylvanians will do the right thing and will help us from W JAC. How long will it be mandated that Pennsylvanians wear masks when entering business? Is in the workplace at one point during the reopening process. Well, the mask order be relaxed. You know certainly not when we go from Red to yellow will mean that we continue to wear masks and even when we go Green you know, Cota 19 is not just gonna be gone from the United States and so we're gonna have to watch for clusters and for outbreaks and for any type of resurgence in the future, and I think it would be prudent in our general recommendation would be when people are out and about seeing. People that they wear a mask it is a simple but very powerful way of protecting the community. Remember my mask protects you your Mass protects me. If we're both wearing a mask, it protects our community and again the governor and I feel very strongly that people want to do the right thing for their communities and the right thing for Pennsylvania. Our last question for today is from public source during the yellow phase should people refrain from socializing in small groups outside their home well, so the Be to to avoid groups of 25 or more, but I think it is still prudent for people to stay home as much as possible and to not socialize, especially in large groups. we want to be very vigilant as I was saying before very careful and vigilant about the spread of Covet 19, and I think that would still be the right thing to do when we go from Red to yellow. Thank you Secretary and thank you everyone for your questions. That's all the time we have for today our next. Briefing will be tomorrow.