Westmoreland County officials are frustrated with the lack of specific information disseminated about local coronavirus cases from the state health department.

“We learn more from the media than from anywhere else,” Roland “Bud” Mertz, public safety director, said Monday.

Mertz said he’s asked but has been unable to get any confirmation from state officials about who has tested positive for the disease and where they are located in the county. It’s information he said is needed not just to alert first responders to a potential hot spot for the disease but to help predict where there might soon be shortages in personal protection equipment.

County officials confirmed Monday morning new cases were reported by Excela Health Westmoreland, bringing the county total to eight. Details about those cases were unavailable, and officials at Excela could not be reached for comment.

Commissioner Sean Kertes said better information from the state is needed to quell the public’s concern.

“People are panicking,” Kertes said. “It would be helpful if we are able to see if it is widespread in certain townships or municipalities.”

Unlike neighboring Allegheny County, where its health department is coordinating the release of information related to coronavirus cases, Westmoreland relies solely on the state.

Commissioner Doug Chew said local officials are in daily contact with staff at Excela and Allegheny Health Network, which recently opened a Neighborhood Hospital in Hempfield.

“I can appreciate as someone who was in the health care community that we can avoid mass hysteria in areas where these people live by not disclosing that information,” Chew said. “But, all weekend long, the question I was asked was, ‘where are those cases?’ And I don’t know where they are. I do think that our public safety director, at the least, should know.”

Mertz said efforts have started to catalog what supplies might be needed as the number of positive coronavirus grow in the county.

“We’re looking to reach out to academia and to businesses to see if some of these that have closed maybe have supplies. I know there will be shortages out there, so we have to be proactive rather than just rely on the state to give us supplies,” Mertz said.

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