YEADON » With COVID-19 positivity rates dropping dramatically in recent weeks the Delaware County COVID-19 Task Force is closing its high-volume testing sites that have been in operation during the Omicron variant-based surge this winter. On Monday, Feb. 28, the drive-thru testing site operated by Personic at the Delaware County Emergency Services Training Center in Sharon Hill closed and Tuesday is the final day for the federally supported drive-thru testing site operated under the direction of the Health and Human Services' Increasing Community Access to Testing Team, in partnership with Trinity Mid-Atlantic on the Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital campus in Yeadon.
"Community spread is low and the demand for testing has significantly dropped off. In January we were doing thousands of tests a week to now this past week, we might have done a dozen at our own testing sites," said Rosemarie Halt, RPh. MPH, interim administrator, Division of Population Health, and chair of the Board of Health. "The demand has significantly dropped off and with positivity low and community spread low we (also) have pretty high vaccination rates."
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health dashboard there have been 94,372 confirmed total cases in Delaware County since the start of the pandemic with an additional 14,000 probable cases, 318,900 negative tests and 1,819 deaths from the virus. The vaccine dashboard shows that 351,371 county residents are fully vaccinated with 83,336 having been partially vaccinated and 160,663 having received an additional shot since the end of August. At the peak this past Jan. 6, 1,800 cases were reported a day in the county which has dropped to 22 positive cases this past Saturday, according to the dashboard. That number approaches the cases back in June and July 2021 when daily positive cases were in the teens in Delaware County. "I feel like right now is a pretty safe time and the public feels the same," Halt said. "And with the change in masking guidance from the CDC and the State Dept. of Health I feel it is warranted to stand down our testing at this time." Halt said the PCR positivity is at 4.7 percent, which puts the county in the medium to low range as per data provided by the CDC. The seven-day average for hospital emergency room visits and incidence rates are very high and the number of patients on ventilators also dropped significantly, she said. "In making the decision it wasn't just people asking for less testing, it was the hospitalizations and the emergency room that were really driving the need for testing because they were getting overwhelmed back in January," Halt said, "But the hospitals now have a much better ability to handle all of the issues."
Delaware County will continue to offer free PCR testing at its Delaware County Wellness Center in Yeadon located at 125 Chester Ave. on Mondays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and at the Keystone First Wellness Center in Chester,1929 W. Ninth St., on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Halt noted that local pharmacies and health care organizations continue to provide COVID-19 testing, and at-home test kits are increasingly available through retail establishments. Additionally, every home in the U.S. continues to be eligible to receive four free at-home COVID-19 tests, which can be ordered at https://special.usps.com/ testkits. For more information about COVID-19 testing, visit the Delaware County COVID-19 website, at delcopa. gov/testing, or the state Department of Health COVID-19 Symptoms & Testing web page at https:// www.health.pa.gov/…/ Pages/Symptoms-Testing. aspx. Halt said health officials are not putting their guard down as they continue to review data and stay prepared for any other variants. "We still encourage people to get vaccinated. It's really important and we are still giving vaccinations," she said. Halt said health officials have learned a lot of lessons from the virus.
The county will continue to give vaccinations and are preparing for the pediatric vaccinations when they are approved for those younger than 5 and are prepared to stand up testing sites again if need be. "We have the infrastructure in place and have the ability to stand up a testing site within 36 hours," she said. "We have all the equipment now and all the logistics and pieces we need." "It's a huge relief that we are finally to this point. Most of us feel it has been a long, long haul," Halt said. "For all of us working in public health it has been pretty exhausting.
