Feared COVID-19 hospital 'surge' is here, Valley health officers say. Tests in short supply
The Fresno BeeJul 11, 2020
Fresno and
"They are worried," Vohra said about the hospitals. "The concern level is really high."
Vohra said the issue is not a hospital issue, it's a community issue.
"It basically means that the level of care that's delivered is under threat for any condition that you have that lands us in the hospital, and that's something that all of us have to take seriously."
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Data from the
Fresno hospitals months ago rolled out plans and operating structures to deal with a surge, and those structures remain in place.
"Our staff is treating the increased number of hospitalized patients with the virus while still caring for those patients with other conditions," said
County health officials are ready to open up the field hospital at the convention center when the time comes, said
"It's just watching and waiting to see when is enough and we activate it in," Lynch said. "We could potentially activate that thing within 72 hours of looking at it and get that thing moving."
It's important that patients who need hospital care get hospital care, rather than sleeping on a cot in the exhibit hall, Lynch said.
County officials requested from the state additional hospital staff, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, respiratory therapists,and more.
Nogy said each person plays an important role in stopping the spread of coronavirus and keeping one another safe.
"While we wait for a vaccine, we need to embrace these public health actions that focus on social distancing measures including maintaining six feet of distance and using masks to protect each other. Following these measures is crucial now to stop the rising tide of these infections," he said.
Testing
At the same time, it's become increasingly difficult to secure an appointment for a COVID-19 test at one of the three Optum sites in
Vohra said test supply chains are drying up, similar to what was happening in the first month of the pandemic. Plus, the demand for tests has increased, and the high number of tests has created a bottleneck at labs processing the tests so results take longer to come in.
That's forced county test sites to revert to prioritizing symptomatic people or those who are higher risk of catching the virus.
Dr.
"Between how quickly it spreads to households and how delayed and impacted testing has become, we realized that to try and get ahead of what is causing a lot of the spread here, we really need to move upstream so that people know as soon as they have symptoms what can they do to protect their household," Paul said.
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