Gov. Tom Wolf announced that additional shipments of testing supplies have been sent to hospitals across Pennsylvania this week. Since March 9, the Pennsylvania Department of Health has distributed supplies to more than 60 hospitals, health care facilities, and county and municipal health departments to help test more than 67,000 patients.
“We know we need to ramp up testing capabilities as a means to further mitigate COVID-19,” Wolf said. “These supplies are critical to that goal. We will continue to distribute these supplies as quickly and efficiently as they become available.”
Testing supplies include nasopharyngeal swabs and viral transport media tubes depending on what is requested by facilities. The department sent testing supplies to the following types of entities:
– 42,000 to county and municipal health departments
– 9,640 to laboratories, testing teams, state agencies and medical practices
– 8,542 to hospital and health systems
– 7,070 to long-term care facilities
“Pennsylvania recognizes that increased testing capacity is a critical aspect to successfully reopening the state; especially as certain regions move from aggressive mitigation to containment strategies,” said Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine. “Even though testing capacity has increased significantly, we will continue to provide necessary testing supplies to our partners across the state so even more Pennsylvanians can be tested and treated for COVID-19.”
As of 12 a.m., May 28, there are 625 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 70,042. All 67 counties in Pennsylvania have cases of COVID-19. There are 5,373 total deaths attributed to COVID-19, an increase of 108 new deaths. County-specific information and a statewide map are available here.
