The State Department of Health announced a new partnership with CVS to help expand COVID-19 testing capabilities in long term care facilities statewide last week.
The move comes as the state works to achieve compliance mandates with executing universal testing in all nursing facilities within the commonwealth.
“This partnership strengthens and increases access to ensure universal testing is completed in nursing homes, as required in the order issued earlier this month,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said in a release late last week.”It will provide us the opportunity to better address outbreaks and work to prevent future outbreaks in nursing home facilities.”
CVS will administer about 50,000 tests residents and staff members of facilities. The tests are free and will begin next Monday, June 29.
Testing at nursing homes will be based on a three-tiered priority list that accounts for homes with new outbreaks, continuing outbreaks, resolved outbreaks, and no outbreaks, in that order.
Nursing homes have been especially hard hit by the virus, particularly in Pennsylvania, where many counties have seen more than 80 percent of their deaths due to coronavirus in nursing homes.
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In Pennsylvania just under 680 facilities have confirmed a positive case of COVID-19, with 3,162 employees and 17,527 residents contracting the virus.
There have been 4,518 deaths in the state’s nursing homes according to state data as of Friday.
404 of the 506 deaths in Bucks County have have occurred in long -term care facilities, according to county data as of Sunday.
CVS also offers testing to the general public at other locations throughout the state, along with Rite Aid, Walmart, and other government community testing sites.
The following link will take you to a map of all testing sites operating in the state.