America

More military medical personnel assisting hospitals with COVID-19 treatment as staffing shortages

January 6, 2022
Henry Club

greater transmittance of omicron version – which has reported lakhs of new cases in just one month – has left frontline workers at high risk of exposure, needing to be quarantined and recover after positive tests. And health officials are working to address any shortfalls in coverage.

In the past week, states such as Ohio, Maryland, Delaware and Georgia have mobilized National Guard members to assist with patient care.

“We are still facing a very serious situation with COVID-19 in Delaware, especially in our hospital facilities,” Gov. John Carney said Monday as about 100 members of the National Guard become certified nursing assistants. undergoing training for.

At Metrohealth Medical Center in Cleveland, officials told CNN that not only is the hospital full of people Needs treatment, but around 400 workers are out of Kovid-19.

Ohio Air National Guard Cpt. Lanette Looney, who oversees the mission at the hospital, where 28 guard members are helping with medical and non-medical tasks, said she has also contracted a COVID-19 infection.

“Within two days of being here, we had four guard members who had symptoms of sore throat, headache, body aches, fever, nasal congestion, and all of them tested positive for COVID,” she told CNN. Told Gary Tuchman.

Teams of military medical personnel work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist health care workers in several states, including Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, US Army North said in a statement Tuesday. Is doing.

A 15-person team from the Air Force is due to support a hospital in Manchester, New Hampshire, and another 20-person team from the Navy will assist a medical center in Buffalo, New York, the statement said.

More than half of New York state’s COVID-19 hospitals are currently in New York City, where about 75-80% of hospital beds are full, officials said on Wednesday. The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Dave Chokshi, said he expected hospitalizations in the city in the coming days, with the local hospitalization rate still well below the spring 2020 peak. He said the city’s hospitals are tense due to the shortage of staff.

As health care workers are falling ill, hospitalization across the country continues to grow. More than one in five hospitals have an intensive care unit, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services – more than 700 hospitals reported that at least 95% of ICU beds were occupied during the last week of December . ,
Ohio Air National Guard member Jordan White prepares to examine a patient's vital signs at Metrohealth Medical Center in Cleveland.

CDC advisers vote to recommend boosting boosters

On Wednesday, advisors to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Voted in favor of expansion of Pfizer/BioNtech Kovid-19 Vaccine Booster Recommendation to include people below the age of 12, as infections accumulate at a rapid rate across the country.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Valensky must sign off on the recommendation to take effect. The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday expanded its emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s vaccine boosters for children between the ages of 12 and 15.

The CDC also updated guidance on the timing of separation this week.

Faced with criticism, CDC updates COVID-19 isolation recommendations with guidance on testing

The agency’s recent guidelines suggest an isolation period of five days following the date of the onset of suspected symptoms or testing positive, and one should wear a mask for an additional five days when around other people or in public if they do not show symptoms. are. If a person still has fever-like symptoms after five days, they should be quarantined for at least 24 hours until they are fever-free.

Yet for those able to test rapidly, the CDC updated your guide In isolation period on Tuesday. If a person has testing facilities and is free of fever, the best approach is to use rapid testing at the end of the five-day isolation period.

The recommendations do not recommend a test for isolated people, but they do provide guidance about how those people should respond if they want to have a test result. If it is positive, people are advised to continue their isolation for 10 days after their symptoms start. If the test is negative, people can end isolation, but they are advised to wear a mask around others for 10 days.

CDC, which received criticism cut in half Last month the recommended deadline for isolation, the changes are aimed at “focusing on the period when a person is most contagious. … These updated recommendations include individual social and welfare needs, return to work and maintenance of critical infrastructure.” also provide facilities.

Students and teachers deal with the complexities of Omicron

Amid the boom, some school districts have opted to return to distance learning for the time being. Nevertheless, it has created friction on several fronts.

Tuesday Night Chicago Teachers Association voted to teach Virtually instead of class, classes began to be canceled on Wednesdays.
underpin difficult conversations Is it safe for children to return to individual learning There has been data showing an increase in infections.
Parents: What worries you about students returning to school?
In what the American Academy of Pediatrics describes as an “alarming increase”, new COVID-19 cases among children have increased by nearly 64% over the past week, According to The data was published on Monday.
And during the week ending Sunday, an average of 672 children were admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 every day. highest number of of the pandemic, according to CDC data.
To help stem the tide, health experts urge continued mitigation practices including mask-wearing for those who have not been vaccinated and eligible to receive They do so before they become infected, protecting themselves and those around them from serious illness.

“Being in the hospital is no picnic. And the people in the hospital are highly non-vaccinated individuals,” Dr. William Schaffner, a professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday.

“Vaccines and boosters give you mild infections and keep you out of the hospital. And the vaccines are really working. It’s the unvaccinated people I worry about. Adults and children, together.”

CNN’s Ben Tinker, Sahar Akbarzai, Laura Lee, Naomi Thomas, Deidre McPhillips, Virginia Langmeid, Holly Yan, John Bonifield, Caitlan Collins, Katherine Dillinger, Mike Callahan, Artemis Moshtaghian, Laura Studley and Albert Luton contributed to this report.

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