2 HEALTH CARE WORKERS TEST POSITIVE FOR VIRUS
Lack of protective equipment a problem
Two Boston hospital professionals have tested positive for coronavirus — and medical experts say health care workers on the front lines of the battle against coronavirus must be better protected from the highly contagious disease.
“It’s crucial that they be protected,” former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said about health care workers. “Doing so will now make our hospitals and other health centers safer and protect patients and health care workers.”
A health care worker at Brigham and Women’s Hospital has tested positive for the coronavirus, the hospital confirmed. Also, a health care employee at Massachusetts Eye and Ear has tested positive for the highly contagious disease, the Boston Public Health Commission confirmed on Sunday.
“As the novel coronavirus spreads across the globe, it is inevitable that health care workers will be infected, as is now the case at the Brigham,” a spokeswoman for Brigham and Women’s Hospital said in a statement. “We are in the process of contacting patients and staff who may have been exposed.”
The hospital said it has been working closely with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Boston Public Health Commission.
“We will continue to follow their and CDC’s guidance, as well as the advice of our own infectious diseases experts as the situation continues to evolve,” the hospital’s spokeswoman said. “The Brigham Health Community has been preparing for this eventuality and has taken every precaution to protect our patients, their loved ones and our staff during this unprecedented pandemic.”
A Mass Eye and Ear health care worker has also tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Boston Public Health Commission.
‘As the novel coronavirus spreads across the globe, it is inevitable that health care workers will be infected.’
BRIGHAM AND WOMEN’S HOSPITAL SPOKESPERSON
“In coordination with BPHC, Mass Eye and Ear has notified individuals who were identified as
close contacts of a healthcare professional at Mass Eye and Ear who tested positive for COVID-19,” a health commission spokeswoman said in a statement. “The close contacts notified are being asked to practice social distancing, avoid public areas and to not go to work for 14 days.”
Personal protective equipment — including masks, gowns and gloves — and other medical supplies are in short supply, health care experts noted.
Beginning Wednesday, hospitals in Massachusetts must cancel nonessential elective surgeries, in part to make sure health care professionals have enough personal protective equipment, Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders announced on Sunday.
The president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association in a letter to state officials wrote that health care facilities do not have enough personal protective equipment. President Donna KellyWilliams also wrote that potentially infected people are going to hospitals that are not equipped to triage, test and properly treat them.
“Massachusetts hospitals need to act to limit the number of staff triaging patients to help conserve the limited supply of (personal protective equipment), and to provide all staff with proper PPE,” she wrote.
“Isolating confirmed and suspected cases can stop the spread among patients and health care workers,” Kelly-Williams wrote. “Suggestions include: an anti-room triage, like the one created at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to test individuals potentially exposed to COVID-19 at the Biogen conference; possibly designating one or two specific hospitals per geographic area as triage hospitals; designating a floor and an ICU specifically for COVID-19 patients or suspected patients.”