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Coronavirus caseload in Washington region hits single-day record (nationthailand.com)

Coronavirus caseload in Washington region hits single-day record

Health & BeautyDec 05. 2020A nurse looks out the window before starting to take patients for covid-19 antibody testing at a testing site in the summer in the Navy Yard neighborhood. MUST CREDIT: photo for The Washington Post by Amanda Voisard. 

By The Washington Post · Rachel Chason

Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia reported by far the highest single-day total for new coronavirus cases Friday, with 6,985 new infections.

Before Friday, the record number of new cases in the greater Washington region was 5,522, seen Nov. 25. The number of coronavirus hospitalizations in the area – a metric that lags infections – has also continued to climb.

Maryland also recorded a single-day high Friday of 3,792 new cases, while the test positivity rate reached 8 percent, the state’s highest since June. Republican Gov. Larry Hogan tweeted Friday to urge residents to get tested, avoid gatherings, wear a mask and wash their hands.

“The promise of a vaccine has given us a light at the end of the tunnel, but we still have dark days ahead,” Hogan wrote, adding that the state is also seeing a record number of residents taking coronavirus tests.

There were 2,877 new cases reported Friday in Virginia and 316 new cases in Washington.

Of the three jurisdictions, Washington saw the biggest increase in new cases this week from the week before, reporting 37 percent more cases. Its seven-day average of 220 daily cases on Friday was a record.

The number of hospitalizations in the nation’s capital reached 194, up 30 percent from the week before, with 51 intensive care unit beds occupied. The number of hospitalizations in Maryland ticked up 11 percent from last week and 16 percent in Virginia.

There was one coronavirus-related death reported Friday in Washington. There were 26 new deaths reported in Maryland and 13 in Virginia. The total deaths reported Friday across the three jurisdictions was slightly lower than in recent days.

There have now been a total of 9,643 deaths and 479,051 cases reported since the pandemic began.

Also Friday, the attorneys general of Virginia and Washington D.C. sent a letter asking Congress to ensure everyone living in the United States can obtain a covid-19 vaccine, when it becomes available, at no cost. The letter, signed by a coalition of attorneys general, asks Congress to codify an interim rule providing the vaccine to Medicare recipients at no cost and to properly fund programs for the uninsured so they do not have to pay administrative fees.

“It is so important that every single Virginian and every single American has access to a COVID-19 vaccine once it becomes available,” Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we have seen this virus disproportionately devastate Black, Brown, and lower-income communities and we must make sure these individuals are able to get these potentially life-saving vaccines.”

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Pandemic is pushing America’s 911 system to breaking point, ambulance operators say (nationthailand.com)

Pandemic is pushing America’s 911 system to breaking point, ambulance operators say

Health & BeautyDec 04. 2020EMS and firefighters in Washington D.C. prepare for a shift. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jahi Chikwendiu 

By The Washington Post · William Wan

The coronavirus pandemic has pushed America’s 911 system and emergency responders to a “breaking point,” with ambulance workers and their services financially strained.

Ambulance providers from New York to Iowa to Georgia say the situation is increasingly dire. Desperate for a financial infusion to keep such operations afloat, the American Ambulance Association recently begged the Department of Health and Human Services for $2.6 billion in emergency funding.

“The 911 emergency medical system throughout the United States is at a breaking point,” Aarron Reinert, the association’s president, wrote to federal health officials in a Nov. 25 letter obtained by The Washington Post. “Without additional relief, it seems likely to break, even as we enter the third surge.”

The strain could result in longer wait times and some providers going out of business, ambulance operators said.

Ambulance providers are struggling to meet surging demand even while grappling with increased costs of personal protective equipment, overtime, staff shortages as workers fall ill and decreases in the type of emergency calls that are reimbursed.

“There are services going out of business and many right there on the brink,” said Steven Vincent, vice president for Gold Cross EMS, which serves a region of roughly 400,000 people in Augusta, Ga.

While billions have flowed to hospitals and other parts of the health-care system, the nation’s ambulance and emergency responders have received only a tiny fraction of that funding.

Nursing homes and assisted-living facilities received $7.4 billion from a relief fund passed by Congress earlier this year. Rural hospitals and clinics received $11 billion. By comparison, ambulance providers and suppliers received only $350 million, according to the association’s letter.

In interviews, ambulance operators say their workers are exhausted and their managers increasingly struggling to keep operations afloat in the face of a series of financial blows.

Even before the pandemic, the nation’s 911 system was strained. Across the country, 911 calls are answered by a patchwork of nonprofit, for-profit, hospital-affiliated, fire department and municipal-run services.

To make ends meet, some companies – especially smaller ones – relied on fundraisers like pancake breakfasts run by volunteers that are no longer possible amid the pandemic, said Linda Frederiksen, executive director for MEDIC EMS, a nonprofit provider in Davenport, Iowa.

“The system was strained to begin with. Now you’re stretching it even further and the worry is when things start to give,” she said.

As some ambulance services go out of business, others from neighboring counties will have to cover those areas, industry leaders said. To cut costs, some may keep fewer ambulances in the field. Both scenarios would result in longer wait times. Rural areas, which already struggle with wait times and coverage, could be especially hard hit.

“And for some providers, the strain means delaying replacing aging ambulances and equipment,” said Tristan North, senior vice president of government affairs for the American Ambulance Association. “We’re harming our EMS system, not just during covid but for the future.”

Under the quirks of the U.S. health care system, while ambulances respond to all manner of 911 calls, they are often only reimbursed when they transport people to the hospital.

During the pandemic, calls for medical help in many areas have surged, by several hundredfold, in some cases, but those resulting in transport to hospitals have fallen.

As hospitals throughout the country become overwhelmed, many ambulance services have been told to treat patients in place whenever possible and transport only the most acute cases to protect hospital capacity.

In New Rochelle, N.Y., for instance – one of the country’s earliest epicenters for virus – 911 calls for medical help that didn’t result in transport increased from 500 to 6,049 this year. Meanwhile, transport volume declined 25%.

At the same time, operation costs have ballooned. Providers are having to disinfect ambulances after each call and provide testing for their staff. PPE has been expensive and hard to find.

Vincent said the company supplying gloves to his ambulance service in Augusta, Ga., recently informed him it was going to double the price for each case of gloves he orders.

EMTs are often the first health care workers to interact with infectious coronavirus patients. They are the ones who put a mask on patients before they even enter hospitals. And many ambulance workers have been hard hit by the virus.

Vincent said his ambulance service has roughly 85 people working each day. But it has an average of eight to 10 staffers out each week – either because they are sick, or are forced to quarantine because someone in their family is infected.

“There’s been a lot of attention and resources paid to hospitals and nursing homes,” he said. “But for the ambulance workers, there’s a sense we’ve been forgotten.”

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Insurer Chubb Life launches family protection programme (nationthailand.com)

Insurer Chubb Life launches family protection programme

Health & BeautyDec 04. 2020Angela Hunter 

By The Nation

In a bid to ease anxiety and financial burden caused by illness, insurance company Chubb Life Thailand has launched the “Family Protector” policy, providing coverage of up to Bt10 million for major surgeries as well as Bt39,000 daily for hospitalisation. The scheme also provides premium discounts for all family members.

Family Protector offers nine choices of coverage, including surgery related to complicated pregnancies and cover for newborns for up to 365 days without extra premium.

According to a 2018 report from the Public Health Ministry, the top five causes of death among Thais are cancer, cerebrovascular disease, chronic lung disease, heart disease and fatal road accidents, with cases of critical illnesses rising every year. Plus, soaring medical costs are a serious concern for most families.

Angela Hunter, country president for Chubb Life Thailand, said: “Chubb Life Thailand’s vision is to help people live their lives with confidence by designing health, protection and financial well-being solutions that meet their specific needs. At Chubb Life, we look at every detail of their lives. Therefore, our health portfolio is expanding to cater to millennial families with more comprehensive protection for each member. With medical costs increasing almost 10 per cent annually, Family Protector is designed to support quality hospitalisation and major surgical operations expenses that young families face. Family Protector has extensive coverage for the needs of most households, including families with children, newlyweds, parents-to-be, or single adults wanting coverage for their parents. A special discount is offered when two family members purchase the product together.”

The Family Protector offers the following benefits:

• Coverage for major surgery including invasive cancer surgery, as well as major surgery on the heart, brain or surgery from accidents, pregnancy complications as well as surgery for congenital abnormalities in newborns, etc.

• Daily hospitalisation compensation of up to Bt19,500 per day.

• Double payout of Bt39,000 for insured persons up to the age of 18.

• Coverage for special treatments like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, haemodialysis, stroke rehabilitation, as well as hospice care.

• Capped benefit payment with a choice of Bt1 million, Bt5 million or Bt10 million per policy year.

• Special discounts for family members when two people purchase the product together and policies are approved.

• Eligible for personal income tax deduction according to Revenue Department’s regulations.

Read more about the Family Protector policy at www.chubb.com/th-th/personal/family-protector.html

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Entertainment venues carry high risk of Covid-19 transmissions: expert virologist (nationthailand.com)

Entertainment venues carry high risk of Covid-19 transmissions: expert virologist

Health & BeautyDec 03. 2020Dr Yong Poovorawan 

By The Nation

Entertainment venues carry the risk of Covid-19 transmissions, Dr Yong Poovorawan, an expert virologist at Chulalongkorn University, warned in a Facebook post on Thursday.

He said super-spreader events in entertainment venues had occurred in South Korea, Japan, Western countries and even Thailand.

“Entertainment venues are noisy places with confined spaces, so it is not easy to undertake measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, such as maintaining a distance from others and even wearing a face mask,” he pointed out.

Dr Yong said Thailand took about two months to contain the spread in entertainment venues and a boxing stadium during the Covid-19 outbreak earlier this year.

“Therefore, we would like to ask everyone to be careful so that this does not become an issue again,” he added.

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Officials outline plans for coronavirus vaccine distribution in D.C. region (nationthailand.com)

Officials outline plans for coronavirus vaccine distribution in D.C. region

Health & BeautyDec 03. 2020Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan holds a news conference Tuesday on the coronavirus pandemic. State officials on Wednesday discuss plans for distributing a vaccine, saying they will prioritize health-care workers. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jonathan Newton 

By The Washington Post · Rebecca Tan, Erin Cox

Officials in the Washington, D.C., region laid out strategies Wednesday for distributing vaccines as coronavirus-related hospitalizations and fatalities continued to climb across the area.

Maryland and Virginia officials said they expect their first shipment of vaccines in mid-December, although members of the general public will likely have to wait until the spring to receive doses.

Maryland Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, R, who spoke at the opening of a Board of Public Works meeting, reiterated that the first vaccinations will go to health-care workers, then employees at nursing homes, where the virus has made a deadly resurgence. He acknowledged that some residents in the state might be skeptical of getting the vaccine, but noted that health-care experts – those who know the most about the disease – will be first in line.

“The hope is that 70 percent of the population will take the vaccine,” he said. “If we can get to that, hopefully we can squash the pandemic.”

According to the federal government, Maryland’s first vaccine shipment will contain 150,000 doses, which will cover half the state’s health-care workers, Gov. Larry Hogan, R, said Tuesday.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, D, echoed similar concerns Wednesday, saying the 70,000 doses his state expects to receive this month will fall short of what is needed for even the highest-priority recipients.

The first in line in Virginia will be health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities, which includes about 500,000 people, Northam said. Essential workers and medically vulnerable individuals are likely to be in the second cohort.

Northam invoked his credentials as a pediatrician to vouch for the safety of the vaccine, but added that until it is readily available to the general public, residents should continue wearing masks and observing physical distancing.

“Be more careful than you think you need to be, especially with the holidays coming up,” he said.

D.C. Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt said earlier this week the city would receive an estimated 8,000 doses of the vaccine in its first shipment – a 10th of what is needed to vaccinate 80,000 health-care workers in the city. Nesbitt said city officials are petitioning the federal government not to tie D.C.’s share of vaccines to its population since many health-care workers live outside the city and commute in for work.

The seven-day average of new daily infections Wednesday across D.C., Maryland and Virginia was 4,671 – lower than the record high of 4,989 last week, but more than double the peak caseload during the first wave of the virus in the spring.

Local officials, including D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D, have warned that new infections are likely to increase in the coming weeks because of the number of people who traveled or gathered with friends and family over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations and fatalities, which tend to lag spikes in cases, also are trending upward across the region. Maryland reported 42 deaths Wednesday – the highest number since June – while D.C. and Virginia reported five and 20 deaths, respectively.

In southwest Virginia, where cases have been surging, the Ballad Health hospital system has suspended elective surgeries so it can better handle an influx of patients. Hospitals are not running out of bed space, officials say, but there’s a growing shortage of staff. The state is looking into whether paramedics or members of the state’s Medical Reserve Corps can help, said Daniel Carey, the state’s secretary of Health and Human Resources.

In Montgomery County, Maryland’s most populous jurisdiction, the percentage of hospital beds occupied by coronavirus patients reached 17.7 percent Wednesday, indicating “very high risk” of community transmission, according to the county’s coronavirus website. The suburb has about one-quarter of its hospital beds unfilled, but that could change if smaller jurisdictions in the region start to hit their maximum capacity.

“Filling our hospitals may depend on what happens in other areas,” Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, a Democrat, said at a news conference Wednesday. He said the county is still “trending in the wrong direction” but stopped short of issuing more restrictions.

“We’re not an island,” he said, noting that when Montgomery tried to shut down private schools in the fall, state officials intervened, effectively barring them from doing so. “If we do things by ourselves – and we very well might – it won’t be as effective as it should be … I continue to argue for a regional approach.”

In the past week, Montgomery’s test positivity rate increased from 4.7% to 5.6%. Health officials acknowledged the county is experiencing testing delays because of the deluge of people who sought tests before or after Thanksgiving travel. Such delays, they noted, are also happening across the country.

The virus continues to spread disproportionately among people working in-person at jobs deemed essential, county health officer Travis Gayles said. Some of those workers don’t have adequate health insurance to seek care when ill, and others are wary of being tested in fear of having to quarantine, losing their source of income, officials said.

When it comes to vaccine distribution, Elrich said the federal government should ensure those essential workers, including bus drivers and grocery store workers, are prioritized.

Elsewhere in Maryland, Anne Arundel County police are investigating an assault on two retail employees who tried to ask patrons to wear masks.

On Saturday evening, a manager at the Bowl America along Ritchie Highway in Glen Burnie asked several male patrons to leave because they were not wearing face coverings, which are mandatory. After the manager escorted the group of eight men out, police said one of them pushed the worker to the ground and others kicked him. A second employee also was assaulted by the group when he came out to assist the manager, police said.

The manager was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. Officials said they are trying to find the group of men, who fled the scene before police arrived.

Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman, a Democrat, said the incident made him “just plain angry,” adding that police would do everything to find them.

“No front-line worker in any business in this county should have to endure this kind of assault,” he said.