As coronavirus hits home, Pa. GOP shifts messaging but still rejects mandates

HARRISBURG — Rep. Jim Rigby and his wife Kathleen considered themselves lucky when they said final goodbyes to her 89-year-old mother through a six-inch crack in a nursing home window.

Laura Oherrick was diagnosed with COVID-19 at the end of November at an assisted living facility in Bedford County. She died Dec. 5.

“Fortunately, because my brother-in-law is a nurse practitioner, he was able to gown up, go in, and open her window enough that we could talk through the screen,” said Rigby, a Republican lawmaker from Cambria County. “If she’d been on the third floor, that wouldn’t have happened.”

While Rigby said the facility “took every precaution” to protect Oherrick, her death “hit home.” Cambria County was not severely impacted by COVID-19 in the spring, but has recently seen spikes in cases, Rigby said, echoing concerns about hospitals contending with serious shortages in staff and other resources.

Read more: https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2020/12/pennsylvania-gop-coronavirus-business-closures-tom-wolf-mandates/