Simone tells us that we had a positive COVID-19 case at the hospital. That patient was moved 4 times before the positive test returned. I wonder how many staff were exposed…
The Trump administration publicly floated the idea of sending cheques of up to $1000 USD. That has the pass Congress first. And I heard that maybe only 20% of American adults would be eligible for such a “stimulus”. I don’t see myself losing work unless I test positive, so I probably wouldn’t get any, if at all. Same with Simone. And $1000 wouldn’t be enough to cover our rent.
Yesterday, Italy saw their biggest death toll yet, 475 new deaths in one day. Our hospital is still out of N95 masks.
Some people are buying K95 masks. Italian clinicians are reporting loss of smell and taste as a common symptom… And some of the case reports from China report neurological symptoms, like loss of balance and altered level of consciousness. Other coronaviruses attack the central nervous system so this is a possibility… Anyway, so people with multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s are extra vulnerable.
The paramedic brought in a cardiac arrest that is also a rule-out, and they didn’t have any marks of their own.
We finally have decent visitor restrictions in place. Last week we were on standard flu restrictions—it took that long just to put those in place?! Now, only one visitor is allowed to paediatric, obstetric, and hospice patients only, and patients are being encouraged to communicate with loved ones via telephone or video calls on their phones. Why did it take so long? All employees are now supposed to log their temperatures twice daily, but our department still doesn’t have logs. Such shame!