Coronavirus - COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #27

[afitzy]

CT - Lack of Hospital Beds to Treat COVID19 Patients

Potentially horrific situation is shaping up in CT IMO regarding lack of hospital resources and no plan to expand beds or set up quarantine locations. Absence of planning by the State based on evidence from China and Italy will no doubt have dire consequences for the residents of CT IMO.
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CORONAVIRUS
Connecticut In Need of More Hospital Beds
How many hospital beds does our state have available?
By Len Besthoff • Published 15 mins ago • Updated 15 mins ago



NBC Universal, Inc.

Experts say with coronavirus cases on the rise, Connecticut could use more hospital beds to care for the sick.


A gargantuan effort to increase the number of hospital beds available for coronavirus needs to happen, and it needs to happen fast.

That’s the upshot of a conference call between the governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

NBC Connecticut reached out to the Connecticut department of health on this, but did not get a quick answer. We also contacted the American Hospital Association for more details.[BBM]

Thousands of Connecticut Businesses About to Go Dark

The information is tucked in a 2019 report from the state Office of Health Strategy.

It said there were 8,540 available hospital beds in Connecticut in 2018, and it has not varied very much.[BBM]

Gov. Ned Lamont says “We are woefully short as a region in terms of being able to take care of folks, especially if the surge comes the way we expect it.”[BBM]

Lamont’s hospital bed comments came during a tri-state governor’s telephone conference.

Afterward, fellow Gov. Andrew Cuomo from New York said to get the feds involved.

“Deploy the army corps of engineers to come work with states to build temporary medical facilities,” Cuomo said.

Time is of the essence, said Yale epidemic expert Albert Ko. He explained neither Connecticut nor the nation can wait any longer.

“We need to be in a place where we can receive our patients, take care of them where ICU beds are free and care for people with severe complications of pneumonia due to coronavirus.”

The report we found is broken down hospital by hospital.

 

[tricia]

Please join me tonight on YouTube Live. We have a chat room. If you need some comfort and want to know you are not alone please join us on our Websleuths YouTube channel.

CLICK HERE AT 10:00 PM EASTERN TONIGHT TO JOIN US LIVE

We really have a great group of people. We need to help each other, comfort each other, make each other laugh if possible.
Hope to see you tonight and every night at 10: 00 PM Eastern.
Love,
Tricia
PS. Monday's used to be my night off but until further notice, we will be going live every night at 10:00 PM Eastern until further notice

 

[zecats]

Oh well that's just great! Thousands of Spring Breakers packing the bars and restaurants. I'm sure they'll practice social distancing.

Even more concerning, what about when they return to their home states and towns??

 

[JerseyGirl]

Alright I am so confused. New Jersey is under an 8pm-5am travel ban. Right?

So, I just got this text from our county sheriff. This is why when the time comes to self isolate it will be pandemonium. All of these local mayors, governors and federal government need to be on the same page. I am about to just give up now. This would have been the perfect opportunity to let it sink in for all if they would have kept the ban.

CO. SHERIFF: AT THIS TIME THERE IS NO TRAVEL BAN/CURFEW FOR THE STATE OF NJ-IT IS SIMPLY SUGGESTED THAT YOU DO NOT TRAVEL AROUND. nixle.us/BPKMS

 

[24Roses]

Reynolds: 1 new COVID-19 case confirmed; school requirements to possibly be waived
Iowa Senate and House agree to waive requirement for school days to be rescheduled

 

[Laughing]

Frustration... personal story...
Unfortunately, a close relative is a believer in his rights. He doesn’t think any government has the right to tell him he can’t go to a restaurant. Not able to even discuss this with him - gets angry.

Told him about Jack Ma’s donation to the US of a million masks and test kits - after this relative’s anti- Chinese tantrum. Jack Ma is Chinese. Of course, this relative had no idea Jack Ma is co-founder of Alibaba and worth about 40 billion.

Nothing to do but sit back and wonder how I could be related to such an idiot.

BBM

Decades since I took genetics as an undergrad, but "hybrid vigor" is a possibility.

This is not related to cars, BTW, youngsters.

 

[Gardener1850]

Our experience attempting to get tested for CoV19 today.

My DH's employer has a testing clinic set up for employees and their families. Call your employer, health insurance provider, your local hospital or your County Health Dept to find a location where you can get tested if you are sick.

First we called and the nurse asked about travel history, who we had come into contact with, our symptoms, etc. They gave us an appointment time and told us where to park, to stay in our vehicle and to call when we arrived. When we got there for our appointment there was a nurse in PPE talking to another patient in his car. Parking was limited (only 4 spaces). At first we parked with one parking space separating us from the other car (the farthest away we could get). The nurse waved at us without approaching, then went inside and called us on the phone. She asked us to move our vehicle to separate more from the other car. We had to park where there technically wasn't a legal parking space but we complied.

Next we waited and waited and waited. We watched the nurse make 3 trips to the other car and then the other car left. It took about 30 minutes for the person before us to be assessed and leave and then we waited another 30 minutes after that. My DH was frustrated about an hour after our appointment time and he almost went inside. But I convinced him to call instead and make sure they had not forgotten us, since we had moved our car away from the designated parking spaces like we were told to do. He called. They had not forgotten us. The nurse came out minutes later and apologized for the wait but she explained this was the first day they have done this and they are being extra careful. They have to change their PPE and get new gloves, new mask, new protective smock between each patient and between each sample collected, and they have to clean and disinfect everything thoroughly.

The nurse started by taking my temperature and my heart rate with a finger pulse reader. She asked me my symptoms. Then she explained they were first going to test for influenza. That test takes 10 minutes and if it is negative then they would test for other things. The test was a very painful nasal swab. It hurt so bad tears ran down my checks involuntarily. The nurse was very sweet and apologetic. She told me that unfortunately if the flu test was negative the next one would also be a nasal swab. She went back in to run my test and change her PPE. Next she came out and did the same flu test for DH. DH's symptoms are still worse than mine today. He couldn't stop coughing and he nearly threw up when the nurse swabbed his nose (did I mention it's painful? My nose still hurts from the swab).

Both our Flu tests came back negative. The nurse called my DH on the phone and asked him a bunch more questions about his symptoms and medical history. The nurse came back out and said that they were only going to test DH for other upper respiratory illnesses because he has worse symptoms than me and is higher risk of having it already. They will send the test away to a lab to be tested for a panel of several upper respiratory illnesses and ONLY if those all come back negative, then they will also test for CoV19. She said that if he tests positive for CoV19 they will assume I have it too and I don't need to get tested. DH has to stay home and self isolate for 14 days or until they medically clear him. If DH's test comes back with an upper respiratory illness other than C0V19 then his quarantine is lifted. If he tests positive for CoV19 then I have to stay home too. We also have to keep track of any and all visitors to our house for the 14 days. They gave us a sign-in form for tracking visitors.

At the time I was happy to not have another painful swab done but my poor DH had to have another one for the upper respiratory panel. Then I thought about the implications of this whole thing. What if we have an upper respiratory bug and CoV19 at the same time? What if our flu tests had been positive but we also have CoV19? We wouldn't have even been given the option of a 2nd test. What if DH and I have different illnesses? None of this procedure makes any sense in the context of the seriousness of this illness. Of course it looks like the numbers are low if they refuse to test someone without checking other things first! They didn't tells us and we didn't ask, but I'm sure this is due to a shortage of tests. They are probably rationing tests and it's very difficult to get tested unless you have had direct contact with a CoV19 positive person or unless everything else is ruled out. I don't know how long the additional tests will take either. We forgot to ask. Hopefully they will come back this week.

 

[tricia]

Please join me tonight on YouTube Live. We have a chat room. If you need some comfort and want to know you are not alone please join us on our Websleuths YouTube channel.

CLICK HERE AT 10:00 PM EASTERN TONIGHT TO JOIN US LIVE

We really have a great group of people. We need to help each other, comfort each other, make each other laugh if possible.
Hope to see you tonight and every night at 10: 00 PM Eastern.
Love,
Tricia
PS. Monday's used to be my night off but until further notice, we will be going live every night at 10:00 PM Eastern until further notice

 

[Lilibet]

And yet still the courts are open.

I predict not for long.

 

[Bravo]

Many snowbirds heading home, many to my Province. Sure hope they self isolate! no matter where they are returning to.

 

[Windsorite]

How is San Francisco going to handle the homeless?

SF unveils temporary RV housing for homeless in need of coronavirus quarantine

 

[dyannaON]

Chlorine or salt water? I'm no expert, but I know chlorine kills everything else, so I'd say safe to swim. Unless, of course there are a gazillion others in the pool too. JMO

Chlorine. And they use a lot.
It’s not a busy place. Think I will avoid just in case. Lol. Knowing my luck. Haha

 

[zecats]

Per my post on the last thread: Discord is back up and I was able to dm my friend (the one who is a recovering addict that I worry about). He's doing okay. I also was able to dm my daughter in Japan. She's booked to fly here in July. I am hoping against hope that she will be able to.

I hate what this virus is doing to people emotionally. I worry about my kids, my friends, my stocks, my neighbors. Ugh. I predict services which provide psychological counseling will benefit even if no one else does. MOO.

My husband is a psychologist. He has a private practice in a building with one other person working there with him (different offices), in a small town. He is seeing clients today, but coming home an hour early due to NJ recommended curfew at 8pm.

Though, I'd consider him to be essential services and able to stay open, I do wonder whether HE should commence phone or video counseling. That involves another set of confidentiality issues, technical knowhow and willingness of clients, according to him. And I worry about him bringing the infection back to the house.

It's a dilemma, for sure. You are correct that more people will need the benefit of counseling. Also, I consider the clients he currently has - how to just stop seeing troubled people cold turkey for an indeterminate amount of time.
All MOO

 

[Lilibet]

How will a manager at a food or beverage establishment know if any of their employees have the virus?

We are already spraying packages and boxed grocery items with Lysol.

I would hope they’re checking for fevers, but of course there isn’t any way at all. We’re on our own as I said in my first post on these threads. But at least there is now action by the governments FWIW. I feel a little better than I did as recently as yesterday.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I thought they decided to give up on containment?

They have now moved onto the "delay" phase. If they think X amount of people will get it they would prefer the cases to be spread out over weeks rather than days (or months rather than weeks) so as not to cripple the health service as seen in Italy. Aka flattening the curve or squashing the sombrero.

What the government really wants, in a nutshell, is to protect the vulnerable and elderly now while "allowing" the fit and healthy to get the virus in milder / non-critical forms. This in turn builds herd immunity, in theory. I get it. I understand the science and numbers and projections. It's just such an unknown situation that nobody knows yet what will work best.

At the end of it all, some countries will be deemed to have handled it better than others in terms of deaths, illness, testing, lockdowns and financial losses to industry. They will be able to determine which systems and mandates worked well and which were a total disaster, and this will benchmark blueprints on how to deal with future pandemics.

We're all in it together and hopefully will find a global solution.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

This British doctor has done a really basic explanation using a bucket of water. Seems rudimentary but watch the whole thing. It makes sense.

 

[charminglane]

I adopted a woman from work. She is around 26. Her family is in Maryland. I told her if she needed ANYTHING that she could rely on me, no problem. Another co-worker jumped in, too.
So her Mom texted me today to tell her how grateful she and her husband are. They are going to pay it forward with a few of their young co-workers that are family-alone.
Hopefully all goes well and we will all stay healthy!

 

[Yesiamapirate]

And yet still the courts are open.

I also sorry!

 

[Henry2326]

GEORGIA

To keep students, teachers & administrators safe & mitigate the spread of #COVID19, I'm ordering the closure of all public elementary, secondary & post-secondary schools in GA from March 18 to March 31. Read more here: Kemp: Public Elementary, Secondary, Post-Secondary Schools Closed March 18 to March 31. @georgiadeptofed #gapol

Governor Brian P. Kemp on Twitter

STAY HOME, SAVE LIVES

 

[beatrixpotter]

Kinda wish I had all my Foxfire books again. I shouldn't have sold them a few years ago...

I grew up reading my grandmother's Foxfire books. I actually lived up there in Rabun County for a while. I only have a couple though. I used to check them out from the library as a kid. Of course now the libraries here are closed.