Beaver County officials frustrated over tracking of nursing home's coronavirus outbreak

Beaver County officials said Thursday they are frustrated about differing state reports on how many nursing home residents have coronavirus as they grapple with one agency’s report that Brighton Rehabilitation has more than 100 cases.

The state Department of Health is reporting 70 cases total across two of the county’s nursing homes, and the county commissioners say an alleged lack of communication from Brighton is contributing to their frustration.

Commissioners Chairman Daniel Camp said the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency reported there are three nursing homes in the county with covid-19 cases: 104 at Brighton Rehabilitation, one at Rochester Manor and one at Villa St. Joseph.

“That’s two state agencies reporting two different numbers,” Camp said.

The health department, he said, is reporting 70 cases across two nursing homes — 61 residents and nine employees, with 10 deaths.

“With the discrepancies in the information at this time and the lack of response we are getting, it makes it difficult for the county to know what we need to prepare for,” Camp said.

Brighton Rehab officials issued a statement Thursday night announcing that about half of those at the facility who tested positive for covid-19 are now symptom-free, while additional residents continue to recover.

Officials there said earlier this month they were operating under the assumption all residents and employees have the virus.

In Thursday’s statement, they cautioned that the home will “likely see more positive residents and there will be tragic loss of life. We mourn with the families of those who passed, and share in the joy of the vastly larger group of those who have recovered.”

Nate Wardle, a spokesman for the state health department, said Thursday he had “no idea” where the differing information was coming from. He said he is working in conjunction with PEMA each day.

Gov. Tom Wolf said on a conference call Thursday that he’s getting daily updates on the situation at the Brighton nursing home and is “very concerned” about the outbreak there. He said state health officials are working to figure out the apparent discrepancy between the actual number of cases and the data the state is reporting.

Camp, along with commissioners Jack Manning and Tony Amadio, held a news conference to address the discrepancies, an alleged lack of transparency at Brighton Rehab and the county’s emergency plan that would call for the ice rink at Bradys Run Park to be used as a contingency morgue.

Amadio said refreezing the ice rink in case it is needed to hold bodies is part of a decades-old mass-casualty plan developed in 1994 after the crash of USAir Flight 427 in Hopewell.

“What people in government realized (after the crash) was we needed a place for a catastrophic event, and that’s why that was put into that plan,” he said. “That’s the only reason you’ve heard about the ice rink.”

Camp stressed that it would “take a lot to get there.”

“That would be a worst-case scenario,” he said. “There are no bodies at the morgue.”

Staff writers Madasyn Lee, Natasha Lindstrom and Jeff Himler contributed.