Kerry Eaton, chief operating officer for Nuvance Health, talks to reporters Friday night about the employee at Danbury and Norwalk hospitals who tested positive for coronavirus. To her right is Gov. Ned Lamont.
Gov. Ned Lamont announced late Friday that a Connecticut hospital employee has tested positive for the coronavirus.
The employee works at both Danbury and Norwalk hospitals and is a resident of Westchester County, N.Y.
The woman is quarantined at her home in New York. Health officials said Friday she was in contact with “a limited number” of people and worked in “an isolated geographic area” in the two hospitals.
They did not provide details about her job or the number of patients she cared for, but a source with knowledge of the situation said the woman is a nurse who had been in contact with as many as 20 patients, as well as numerous colleagues across the two hospitals. The colleagues she came into contact with have been placed on furlough, and hospital patients who begin exhibiting symptoms of the coronavirus will receive priority for testing, the source said.
The woman was exposed to the virus in her home by another person who had tested positive for it. She then worked shifts at both hospitals.
“This is not unexpected,” Lamont said during a press conference at Danbury City Hall Friday night. “We’ve been prepared for this, well prepared for this. We’ve been planning for this for some time.”
“The hospital has been very aggressive – they’ve gone and they’ve figured out everybody that she’s had any contact with over the last several days and those folks have been put on furlough,” he said. “We’re monitoring them very carefully. Anybody, over the course of the 14 days, who shows any symptoms at all will be immediately tested.”
“We knew this day would happen. It’s here, so we’ll manage it.”
Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton
Renee Coleman-Mitchell, the state’s health commissioner, said Friday that Connecticut’s public health lab has tested 42 specimens for COVID-19, and all have been negative. Another 11 are in the process of being tested. The state has received one kit from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that allows health workers to test about 600 people. Lamont has requested additional kits.
Danbury and Norwalk hospitals are under “strict” surveillance, the governor said.
“It was somewhat inevitable that there was going to be a positive COVID-19 case in our state, and the first one happened to be an employee who works at our hospitals,” said Kerry Eaton, chief operating officer of Nuvance Health, whose network includes Norwalk and Danbury hospitals. “I have teams … who are currently working to make sure that we identify any and all persons who need to be notified of their potential exposure.”
“We believe it is contained because it was a very limited geographic area,” she added. The woman has been in quarantine since Wednesday.
The governor was joined Friday night by a slew of officials, including Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, Nuvance Health personnel, and local politicians, who seemed intent on delivering the same message: Connecticut residents should remain calm, stay informed, and follow federal guidelines for hand-washing and other safety protocol.
Hospital officials urged residents to remain calm so emergency rooms do not become overrun with the “walking well” – people who are not sick but are worried and want to be tested. For now, they said, testing is reserved for patients who are acutely ill and require hospitalization.
“If there’s a message for the community it’s: Look, we got this,” Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said Friday. “It’s going to be unnerving. It’s disruptive. It’s scary. But at the end of the day, we’re going to be OK if we work together, follow the protocols that are in place, and communicate across all lines, including state borders.
“We knew this day would happen. It’s here, so we’ll manage it.”
"case" - Google News
March 07, 2020 at 11:33AM
https://ift.tt/38u24HY
Hospital employee is the first reported case of COVID-19 in Connecticut - The CT Mirror
"case" - Google News
https://ift.tt/37dicO5
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Hospital employee is the first reported case of COVID-19 in Connecticut - The CT Mirror"
Post a Comment