Camden County Nursing Homes Prepared For Second Wave Of COVID

CAMDEN COUNTY, NJ — Camden County’s long-term care facilities are more prepared to deal with the coronavirus now than they were in the spring, according to a county communicable disease investigator.

“Numbers remain steady, and we still have cases among residents and staff,” Rianna Deluca said during a news conference with Camden County Director Louis Cappelli Jr. and Infectious Disease Physician Dr. Mark Condoluci, of Jefferson Health. “But we have the proper PPE now and people are being tested more frequently than they were before.”

She said state and local officials are also in constant contact with the facilities. Early in the pandemic, it was an older population that was exposed to the coronavirus. Many of the deaths were linked to long-term care facilities, and state monitors were even brought in to monitor homes in Cherry Hill, Collingswood and Voorhees. Read more here: Camden County Officials ‘Horrified’ By Nursing Home Deaths

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Although the number of cases has been increasing in Camden County, long-term care facilities are in a better position to combat the coronavirus.

As of Monday, there were 122 active cases among residents and 96 cases among staff members at the county’s 56 long-term care facilities, according to the state. There were 14 deaths among residents as a result of these cases. No staff members have died.

The virus also isn’t prevalent among older residents as it was in the spring. The average age of the new cases that have been reported in Camden County is 37, according to Cappelli.

Throughout the county, there were more than 1,000 new cases identified last week, the most ever identified in a week in the county since the pandemic began. There were already 724 as of Thursday for this week, Cappelli said. Trace investigations are underway in all new cases.

“The numbers are staggering and extremely concerning,” Cappelli said. “We’ve been relatively fortunate in Camden County with the number of deaths, but we do have reason to believe the number of deaths will increase.”

He reiterated that the driving force behind the recent increase has been small gatherings. Given the average age of the recent cases, he also said it’s important for younger people to be careful of spreading the virus to their elders. Testing can help with that, and Condoluci said there are a sufficient number of tests available.

For a breakdown of the recent cases by nursing home, click here.