PA Working With CVS To Expand COVID Testing In Nursing Homes

PENNSYLVANIA — The Pennsylvania Department of Health has announced a new partnership with CVS to help expand coronavirus testing capabilities in nursing homes statewide.

The move comes as the state works to reach compliance with the mandate to execute universal testing in all long term care facilities in Pennsylvania.

"This partnership strengthens and increases access to ensure universal testing is completed in nursing homes, as required in the order issued earlier this month," Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said in a statement. "It will provide us the opportunity to better address outbreaks and work to prevent future outbreaks in nursing home facilities."

CVS will administer up to 50,000 tests for nursing residents and staff members. The tests are free and will begin next Monday, June 29.

Facilities will be tested based on a three-tiered priority list that considers homes with new outbreaks, ongoing outbreaks, resolved outbreaks, and no outbreaks, in that order.

Nursing homes have been especially hard hit by the virus, particularly in Pennsylvania, where many counties have seen more than 80 percent of their deaths due to coronavirus in long term care facilities.

A total of 678 facilities in Pennsylvania have confirmed a positive case of the virus, with 3,162 employees and 17,527 residents becoming infected. This has resulted in 4,518 deaths in the state's long term care facilities, as of Friday afternoon.

CVS also offers testing to the general public at certain locations statewide, along with Patient First, Rite Aid, Walmart, and numerous government community testing sites.

The state has a map of all testing sites in Pennsylvania on their website.

This article originally appeared on the Abington Patch