May. 18, 2020
HARRISBURG – Speaker of the House Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) today released his weekly video update, Reopening Pennsylvania: Safely, Compassionately, Urgently.”
This week, the Speaker discusses the two crises facing Pennsylvanians: the COVIDhealth crisis and the COVID economic crisis. The Speaker also shares and discusses data and statistics provided by the Health Department regarding the COVID casualties in Pennsylvania’s nursing homes.
Attached is a memorandum from Speaker Turzai to members of the House of Representatives extrapolating data from the Health Department.
For convenience, the information from the memorandum is provided below.
Sadly, 4,342 Pennsylvania citizens have died due to Covid-19.
Of these 4,342 tragic deaths, 2,991 of these persons lived in nursing homes, personal care homes and assisted living residences, which means 69% those who have died lived in these types of settings.
Of the 4,342 persons who have died, 4.7%had 5 or more comorbidities (a "comorbidity" is "the fact that people who have a disease or condition also have one or more other diseases or conditions" as defined in the Cambridge Dictionary), l0.9% had 4 comorbidities,22% had 3 comorbidities,23.3% had 2 comorbidities, 24.1% had 1 comorbidity andl0.1% hadzerocomorbidities.
Of the 4,342 persons who died,62.1% had hypertension, 54.1% had heart disease, 37.9%haddiabetes, 29.1% had chronic pulmonary disease, 24%had chronic kidney disease, 15.3% were immunocompromised and2.2% had chronic liver disease.
According to the Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania (HAP), citing Pennsylvania Department of Health statistics, there are 37,000 beds in Pennsylvania hospitals. As of May 15, 2020,1,954 of these beds were occupied by Covid-19 patients, which amounts to 5.28 %.
As of May 15,2020, there were 413 patients in Pennsylvania hospitals on ventilators, which amounts to 1.12% of all hospital beds.
Speaker Mike Turzai
28th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
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