Pennsylvania now leaves it up to those with covid-19 to warn others about exposure

An auto parts store in New Kensington. A Derry Township skilled nursing center. Colleges from Greensburg to Pittsburgh.

All have reported positive coronavirus tests in recent days. And all are on their own to let others know about potential exposure.

State officials no longer perform that service.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health, which reports a daily tally of new cases, stopped tracking contacts of those with new diagnoses of covid-19. What was once considered a major front in the battle against infectious disease — notifying those who may have been in contact with or who come into close proximity to someone infected — has been abandoned as the number of cases has grown exponentially statewide.

The state Department of Health on Thursday reported 560 new cases, bringing the statewide total to 1,687. There have been 16 deaths, including two in Allegheny County.

“Contact tracing stopped last week, as the number of cases alone, without doing follow-up contact, became challenging to manage,” said Nate Wardle, a health department spokesman. “If there was an individual who would have tested positive, we would have told that individual to stay home, and told them to contact their close contacts, which includes their place of employment, of a positive test.”

That means it is up to the infected to tell others — family, friends, employers, co-workers and others.

The novel coronavirus is more than twice as contagious as the flu, according to the World Health Organization, and can be transmitted by those infected up to five days before the first symptoms appear. A person infected with the new coronavirus will spread it to an estimated 2.2 people, while someone with the typical flu passes it along to 1.3 people, the organization and others estimate.

Now that public health officials have ceased notifying and tracking individuals who have had contact with those diagnosed with covid-19, the line between responsibility and liability begins to blur.

Bill Goodrich, a Pittsburgh lawyer who has practiced civil law for four decades and is past president of the statewide association of trial lawyers, said the law in this arena is based on notice.

“If you know there’s a problem and fail to notify others, there could be a problem involving breach of duty,” he said. “And if that breach would cause injury resulting in damages, conceivably there could be issues.”

Spreading the word

A long-term resident of Loyalhanna Care Center in Derry Township tested positive for covid-19 on Tuesday, a day after she exhibited symptoms and was transferred to a local hospital, said Kelly Pynos, administrator of the skilled nursing facility.

The facility’s other 99 residents are being monitored for symptoms consistent with coronavirus infection.

A spokeswoman for Seton Hill University said Wednesday that the Greensburg school finally received word that a coronavirus test came back negative for a LECOM osteopathic medical student, who had shown symptoms associated with the highly contagious illness. The school and campus community waited 12 days for that notification.

The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University have both reported students who tested positive for covid-19.

What began with a high school band trip to New York City later resulted in at least two confirmed cases among the 102 Valley High School students and chaperones after they returned March 8.

The New Kensington-Arnold School District reached out to those involved in the trip and, beginning March 21, began updating the community twice a day by email — even when there is nothing new to report.

Still, it is anyone’s guess just where the teacher or the chaperone contracted the virus — or how many people may have been exposed in the weeks and days since then.

It now is possible that the illness spread beyond people associated with the school district.

Advance Auto Parts closed its store on Tarentum Bridge Road in New Kensington. A band booster who chaperoned the trip has tested positive for the virus. His family has declined to comment.

A spokesman for the national auto parts chain explained the company’s response.

“We have temporarily closed this store and have deployed a CDC-preferred cleaning service to deep clean and disinfect the location before we reopen to the public,” a corporate statement read in response to questions from the Tribune-Review. “In addition, we have notified team members that may have been exposed to the impacted team member and those team members are also self-monitoring in quarantine.”

Advance Auto Parts also posted a notice on the locked door that it is closed due to covid-19.

One store employee, who lives outside Greensburg, later became ill and was tested last weekend for coronavirus. Results came back negative.