Long-term care facilities say Orange Co. PPE program helped keep COVID cases down

Some local nursing facilities are crediting Orange County with helping to keep their COVID cases down.

Orange County Health Services said it has distributed more than 6.3 million pieces of personal protective equipment to long-term care facilities and government agencies since the beginning of the pandemic.

Savannah Court and Cove of Maitland Senior Executive Director Kelsey Cobasky said the skilled nursing facility and assisted living facility relied on the county to provide them with free masks, gloves and gowns every week for about four months during the early days of the pandemic.

"A lot of our vendors were short in supply," Cobasky said. "We knew that we needed the supplies to protect our residents and our staff so that Orange County was able to help us get those, we were able to keep our residents safe."

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Cobasky said county officials also trained staff at the skilled nursing facility on how to properly use the PPE.  She said pre-pandemic, staff only had to use PPE in rare cases.

"I think [the training] helped just in keeping our COVID numbers down. You know we haven’t had any positive residents [at the skilled nursing facility]."

Orange County officials said they have helped more than 130 long-term care facilities and government agencies since the beginning of the pandemic. Officials estimate the county has distributed more than 6 million masks, more than 99,000 gowns, more than 9,000 boxes of gloves, and nearly 2,000 gallons of hand sanitizer.

"I think it has been an opportunity to save lives," Orange County Director of Health Services Dr. Yolanda Martinez said about the community PPE initiative. "As long as we have them, as long as there’s a need out there, we will continue to search, to purchase them and have them available for the community."

Orange County has also distributed tens of thousands of masks and hand sanitizers to local businesses, community organizations and churches in the past. For more information on the Orange County PPE for Community Initiative visit the Orange County website.