Category: Health Care
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COVID-19: Milder than We Thought
The latest numbers from the state and hospital-association COVID-19 dashboards suggest that the coronavirus in Virginia still is retreating. The seven-day moving average of test-positive cases for COVID-19 tests continues to fall, hitting a new low of 5.8%. Meanwhile, two measures of intensive hospital utilization have hit new lows. The number of COVID-19 patients in…
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COVID Workplace Rules Endorsed, But Not Final
The Northam Administration’s Safety and Health Codes Board agreed yesterday that COVID-19 in the state’s workplaces demands an emergency state response, but the nature and exact wording of that regulation remains undecided. If adopted, formal regulations come with the potential for heavy penalties for employers cited for failures. Earlier versions of the key documents have already…
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BR’s COVID-19 Parallel Universe
By Peter Galuszka Almost every morning, I wake up a little before dawn, make coffee, let the dog out and feed her and start reading the news. I take The Washington Post in print along with The New York Times, Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Virginian-Pilot, NBC News, various television stations and, of course, Bacon’s Rebellion online.…
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Where Are the Other 52 Nursing Homes with Outbreaks?
by Carol J. Bova The governor’s Long Term Care Facility Task Force list shows 179 nursing home and assisted living facilities with outbreaks of COVID-19. There are 52 more, according to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) Outbreaks tab on the daily COVID-19 data, but no explanation why they’re missing from the Task Force list.…
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Nursing Homes Most at Risk from Virus are Bigger, Urban
Three out of five of the 1,645 Virginians who have died from COVID-19 have been residents of long-term care facilities — one of the highest percentages of any state in the United States. There has been considerable speculation why. Vincent Mor, a research scientist with the Brown School of Public Health, has found that nursing-home…
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COVID Regs Unclear, Unneeded, Contradictory
By Steve Haner More than two dozen Virginia business associations have asked that the state’s Safety and Health Codes Board reject proposed workplace regulations to prevent COVID-19, stating they are unclear, contradictory, and not needed in light of other existing worker protections. Some of the largest statewide associations, such as the Virginia Manufacturers Association, National…
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Why Hasn’t Northam Acted Yet on the Great COVID News?
by James A. Bacon A flood of COVID-19 test results were reported to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) over the weekend — more than 45,000 tests — and the news is good. While 1,652 new cases were confirmed over Saturday and Sunday, the seven-day moving average of the percentage of people testing positive declined…
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Virginia Nursing Home Deaths Top 1,000
by Kerry Dougherty Anyone here remember the very beginning of the nursing home crisis in Virginia? Remember when we learned that a home in Henrico County, a facility where some residents reportedly had been stacked for a time like cordwood – three to a room – was in the midst of a deadly outbreak? Last…
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How Did VDH Miss 1,100 Suspected Cases?
by Carol J. Bova When Governor Northam announced the release of the Virginia Health Department (VDH) COVID-19 details for specific nursing homes and assisted living facilities on June 19, he explained the reversal in policy: “It is also important that this information is released now, given inconsistent information reported at the federal level.” The governor’s…
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Sweeping COVID Workplace Regulation Proposed
By Steve Haner The Northam Administration’s Safety and Health Codes Board will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday –- in a virtual process allowing no public interactions – to impose sweeping new regulatory mandates related to COVID-19 on Virginia workplaces. They could take effect immediately upon Governor Ralph Northam’s signature, and will not disappear if an end…
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COVID-19 Update: Big Move in Nursing Home Deaths
From today’s data updates… Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 555 New hospitalizations: 53 Deaths: 16 Deaths in long-term care facilities: 55 Wait, what? How can the Virginia Department of Health report 16 news deaths overall but 55 in long-term care facilities? It appears that VDH is revising the way it reports and classifies its numbers. Whatever the…
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COVID Deaths Are Way Down. Wear Masks to Keep Them Down.
by James A. Bacon The number of new deaths in Virginia attributed to the COVID-19 virus fell to three yesterday, according to data published this morning on the Virginia Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard. That’s the lowest number since April 6. Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 patients being treated in hospitals fell to 857, the…
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It’s Good to Be King
by James A. Bacon Wise King Ralph, in his wisdom, announced yesterday that he would delay implementation of the Phase 3 rollback of emergency economic-lockdown measures. He reached that decision even though Virginia’s COVID-19 metrics show that the epidemic is receding rapidly. Unfortunately, despite declaring previously that he would be guided by those very same…
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From Moon Walking to Slow Walking
by Kerry Dougherty I’m tired of writing about Gov. Ralph Northam. I wish he’d stop doing dumb things so we could all go back to ignoring him. But here we go again. This time it’s another Northam bait-and-switch. What is it with this governor? He claims to worship at the altar of science and numbers…
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VDH Playing Catch Up
by Carol J. Bova The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) has made two major recent changes on the COVID-19 dashboard. On June 15, under Race and Ethnicity in the demographics tab, VDH moved about 20,000 cases between categories and added 380 total new cases. Category Cases reduced by… …