Dr. Rachel Levine, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, speaks during a press conference addressing the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Pennsylvania, inside PEMA headquarters on Tuesday, July 28, 2020.

All 693 nursing homes in Pennsylvania have completed testing all residents and staff for COVID-19 at least once, in accordance with Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine’s universal testing order issued June 8.

“This was an essential step to ensure that we further protect residents and staff within these vulnerable communities,” Levine said. “We provided nursing home owners and operators with the resources they needed to complete this huge task and we are appreciative for their cooperation.

Through our partnership with CVS Health and Eurofins we will continue to provide skilled nursing facilities with access to testing services at no cost.”

Universal testing requires each nursing home to test all staff and residents for COVID-19 at least once to better understand the scope of how COVID-19 has impacted these vulnerable communities across the state.

The department’s goal with implementing this universal testing in nursing homes is to rapidly detect asymptomatic positive residents and staff, manage their care or appropriately exclude staff from work, and prevent further transmission of COVID-19 in these living settings.