Article in the Easy Reader on COVID-19 hospitalizations at
Providence Little Company of Mary. 38 hospitalizations reported last week which is double from a previous count but less than the peak of
83 in mid-April.
John Bailey, President
Southeast Torrance Homeowners’ Association, Inc. (SETHA)
Link to the article where you can view the accompanying graphs.
https://easyreadernews.com/covid-19-hospitalizations-at-providence-little-company-rose-with-reopening-of-bars-restaurants/
COVID-19 hospitalizations at Providence Little Company rose with reopening of bars, restaurants
After declining for two months, COVID-19
hospitalizations are on the increase at at Providence Little Company of Mary in
Torrance. Chart courtesy of PLCOM
by Kevin Cody
In mid-April, the number of COVID-19 patients
at Providence Little Company of Mary peaked at 83. The following month, while
the Shelter At Home order was in place, the patient census dropped to 19.By
lLast week, that number had doubled to 38.
The doubling of Providence Little Company’s
COVID-19 patients coincided with the near doubling of COVID-19 cases statewide,
from 130,000 on June 12 to 230,000 on July 1. On June 12, hoping the pandemic
was under control, Governor Gavin Newsom allowed bars and restaurants to reopen.
On July 1, he reclosed the bars and restricted restaurants to serving outside
and to go orders.
“In a virus with a 14 day incubation period,
this could have been predicted, that the cases would increase within two weeks
of reopening the bars,” Dr. Anita Sircar said last Wednesday, July 1, during a
Zoom update on the pandemic, hosted by Providence Little Company of Mary. Sircar
is an infectious disease specialist at the hospital.
“This is still very much a pandemic. Nothing is
set in stone and it hasn’t been for the last three months,” she
said.
One change, which she attributed to the bars’
reopening, is, “The majority of cases — 57 perent — we’ve been seeing lately are
between the ages of 18 and 47. Previously, the majority were coming from
congregate living facilities (senior homes and
prisons).”
In Los Angeles County, 40 percent of recent
COVID-19 cases have been people ages 18 to 40.
What hasn’t changed, Sircar said, is who dies.
“People over 65 still account for 75 percent of
the deaths,” she said.
Sircar underscored the importance of wearing
masks by noting that 35 percent of COVID-19 carriers show no symptoms and 40
percent of all transmission occur prior to the onset of
symptoms
The pandemic has created a second health
threat, Dr. Jo Vournas, Little Company Emergency Department Chair,
said.
People needing medical attention for life
threatening conditions such as heart disease and diabetes are not seeking
treatment because they are afraid of contracting COVID-19 at emergency
departments.
To alleviate this fear, Providence Little
Company CEO Gary Olney noted, there have been no patient to patient
transmissions of COVID-19 at the Torrance hospital. He credited to stringent
visitor restrictions and other precautions that isolate COVID-19 patients from
the general hospital population.
Olney said Providence Little Company of Mary
has been preparing for a surge since March, when California had just 1,000
confirmed COVID-19 cases. The hospital now has 148 incubators and maintains a
two week supply of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).
Providence’s San Pedro hospital has been
designated a “clean” hospital to protect its patients from COVID-19, and also to
allow Proidence’s COVID-19 experts, resources, and testing to be concentrated at
its Torrance Hospital, Olney said.
As of June 30, nearly 10,000 patients and
employees had been tested for COVID-19. The number testing positive has been
rising and is now at 11 percent, Olney said.
The hospital has discharged 375 COVID-19
patients since March.
During the presentation, Sircar quoted from Dr.
Anthony Fauci’s June 30 testimony before the Senate Health Committee. The
director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases warned
Senators the number of new cases nationwide could jump from the current 40,000
a day to 100,000 a day.
“Clearly we are not in total control right
now,” Fauci told the committee “It is going to be
very disturbing, I will guarantee you that….
What was thought to be unimaginable turns out to be the reality we’re facing
right now.”
Sircar said the U.S is funding three vaccine
trials. But presently, there is no vaccine and no effective recognized
medication effective in reducing symptoms.
(One of the vaccine trials is being led by Dr.
Eric Daar, of the Lundquist Institute in Torrance. The vaccine was developed by
the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, in the United Kingdom, maker of the
allergy nasal spray FluMisty. During the trial 20,000 people will receive the
vaccine and 10,000 a placebo. Trial participants will be followed for a
year.
“It’s conceivable we will have data by the end
of this year, and certainly by the middle of next year,” Darr told Easy Reader
in a recent interview.)
Sircar closed the conference by quoting World
Health Organization Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said on June 29,
“We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard
reality is this is not even close to being over. Although many countries have
made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding
up.”
Sircar added, “Have hope. All pandemics
end.” ER
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