We are very fortunate that there have been no positive cases of Covid-19 in any of the four Kendal-Crosslands communities (Kendal, Crosslands, Conniston, and Cartmel). That is primarily due to the aggressive steps taken by our management and medical staff to protect us. We were also lucky, in that we were not where the pandemic first took hold, in Washington state in late February. Many in that region contracted Covid-19 before anyone knew it was even present in the US.

Once it was obvious that this would be a national problem, Kendal immediately started taking preventative actions. Our CEO tells us that there is only one other retirement community in our area that can report zero Covid-19 cases.

Anecdotally, we hear that some retirement communities have had quite a few cases. For example, I have a friend who reports that one where she works part-time, not far from here, has had at least 14 cases among residents, and several among staff.

As for our surroundings: our immediate region and our state are doing comparatively well, given the grim circumstances.

  • Kennett Township, where Kendal is located, has had only 5 confirmed cases (among 8,104 residents)
  • Pennsbury Township, where Crosslands and Cartmel are located, has had just 3 cases (among 3,631 residents).
  • The Kennett and Pennsbury numbers each represent less than 1/10% of the population—well below the rate for Chester County as a whole. There have been no Covid-19 deaths in either township.
  • But in Pocopson Township, just to our north, the virus has taken hold. That’s where our fourth campus, Conniston, is located. Pocopson Township has the highest rate in the county, at 4/10% (20 cases among 4,820 residents, but no deaths). The county prison is located in Pocopson Township, which could be a factor in the Township’s high rate.
  • The Philadelphia metro area is also doing OK, relatively speaking. It is reporting fewer new cases and fewer deaths than most comparable population centers. The number of new cases reported each day appears to have peaked. There have been 18,899 confirmed cases and 647 deaths in the metro area.
  • For the state of Pennsylvania, daily new cases also seem to have peaked. But it’s clear that the pandemic is still steadily spreading, both in Pennsylvania and in our immediate area. There have been 29,444 confirmed cases and 864 deaths in Pennsylvania.

Keeping track of the local and regional prevalence of Covid-19 will surely be an important component in the strategy for returning Kendal to some semblance of normality. It seems likely to me that until local and regional case numbers are drastically reduced, many of our current restrictions on shopping, visitors, gatherings, and so on will have to remain in place.

Better testing and treatments will help the situation, but it seems possible that some set of less stringent restrictions will have to remain until we are all immunized—probably at least a year from now.

I will be updating this data on Covid-19 prevalence from time to time in this blog. If you are interested in tracking the prevalence numbers yourself, here are the sources.

Township-level data can be found on Chester County’s Covid-19 dashboard here.

Metropolitan-area data is available from the New York Times here.

State-level data is available from the New York Times here.