Pa. Department Of Health Expected To Release Coronavirus Data Reported By Nursing Homes
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Families who have loved ones inside nursing homes want more information about what's happening inside these facilities.
They're asking questions about how many cases of the coronavirus are in these facilities, and how many have died from the virus?
Starting today, they're expected to get those answers.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the data that's being released today should've been released last week.
Dr. Rachel Levine said that there was hope that the information would've been collected earlier, but it didn't start until two days ago.
For months, facilities across the state were not required to report the total number of confirmed cases to local officials or families.
This left a lot of families in limbo, wondering what was happening inside personal care homes and just how bad was the virus was spreading.
Now, Dr. Levine says that facilities must submit the proper information.
If they miss the deadline, the state will continue to push until management complies.
"This is the same data that they're actually being mandated to report to the federal government and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services," Dr. Levine said. "We did wait on our data reporting plan so our system in terms of this reporting was the same as CMS's so the reporting would be consistent."
Families we talked to who have loved ones in nursing homes say they're looking for some form of comfort during all of this.
More information on the Coronavirus pandemic:
