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Stay-at-home order generates more trash, municipal officials say

Thirteen more Luzerne County residents died from coronavirus the first four days of May, pushing the county past 100 victims since the first was announced on March 25.
				&ldquo;In the space of only 40 days, the county has lost over 100 of our neighbors,&rdquo; county Manager C. David Pedri said Monday. &ldquo;We cannot lose sight that these men and women are not just numbers on a piece of paper but our friends &mdash; friends who had great careers, gave of themselves and most importantly had beautiful and caring families.&rdquo;
				Pedri encouraged residents to pause and think about the 101 pandemic victims to date.
				&ldquo;In honor of those we lost and for their loved ones, I ask all citizens of Luzerne County to say a prayer and be vigilant against this virus,&rdquo; he said.
				Lost so far were 52 men and 49 women, according to an analysis of county statistics.
				Three were in their 40s. At the other extreme, two were 100, and one was 101 years old.
				Hit hardest were those in their 80s, with 29 deaths, followed by 26 deaths of residents in their 90s.
				A breakdown of the victims in other age groups: 50s, four; 60s, 13; and 70s, 23.
				Mirroring a trend in many counties, the state reports that 67 of the county&rsquo;s deaths, or 66%, stem from nursing and personal care homes.
				The county now has 343 confirmed coronavirus cases in 16 long-term care facilities, impacting 301 residents and 42 workers.
				The state has not identified these nursing and personal care homes.
				State officials have been discussing the pros and cons of releasing locations, balancing the need for confidentiality with the public&rsquo;s right to know, state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said during a briefing Monday.
				Levine said she expects a decision on the matter this week.
				Some county officials have been asking the state to remove long-term care statistics from their figures for analysis on which areas will move to less restrictive pandemic protocols.
				As she has stressed before, Levine said it is &ldquo;very important&rdquo; to keep nursing and personal care cases in the formula because employees of these facilities go &ldquo;back and forth&rdquo; between their work and residences.
				&ldquo;We are all interconnected,&rdquo; she said.
				State modeling suggests relaxing pandemic restrictions too soon in areas that still have significant community transmission, such as the northeast and southeast parts of the state, could cause new cases to shoot up too quickly again, Levine said.
				There are 695 nursing homes and thousands of personal care homes in the state, she said.
				Statewide, 67% of the deaths, or 1,646 of 2,458, have stemmed from long-term care facilities, statistics show.

13 more Luzerne County deaths push virus toll to 101