Hunterdon County, N.J., has supplied long-term care facilities, and the independent living facility in the county, with over 72,000 units of personal protective equipment (PPE) and 70 COVID-19 test kits, as part of the county Health Department’s efforts to assist the facilities in preventing the spread of COVID-19, Freeholder Board Deputy Director Sue Soloway reported at the May 5 board meeting, held by teleconference.
Soloway, the Freeholder Board’s liaison for the Health Department, reported that the four privately operated facilities in the county, Country Arch Care Center in Union Township, Hunterdon Care Center in Flemington, Little Brook Nursing Home in Califon and Rolling Hills Care Center in Lebanon, and Independence Manor, an assisted living center, in Flemington, by state law are overseen, licensed and inspected by the New Jersey Department of Health’s (NJDOH) Division of Health Facility Survey and Field Operations.
Brayden Fahey, Hunterdon County’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) coordinator, said, “The county’s OEM has been supplying PPE to the long-term care facilities in Hunterdon County throughout this pandemic and we were recently notified that the federal government is going to deliver two shipments of PPE directly to those facilities, fulfilling a long-standing request.”
Soloway added, “During the COVID-19 outbreak, the Health Department receives daily reports from long-term care facilities, including the number of ill residents and their symptoms, positive cases of illness, and deaths, and submits these reports to the New Jersey State Department of Health. “And beyond the provision of the test kits and over 72,000 pieces of protective equipment that included N95 masks, gowns, face shields and gloves, the county Health Department has provided updated technical guidance on isolating and controlling the spread of disease within the facilities.”
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